Issue 125

February 2015

It’s been a long time since Dan Hardy set foot inside the Octagon, but the former UFC welterweight title contender is eyeing a 2015 return at 155 pounds. 

Obsession with training and fighting is seen by many as a necessity to reach the highest level of the MMA game, but there’s a dark side to that coin. Too often tunnel vision and a single-minded approach to competing causes a fighter to lose sight of the possibilities outside the cage. Thankfully for Dan Hardy, being open-minded is something that comes naturally.

Following a 6-4 UFC run from 2008 to 2012, "The Outlaw" was forced onto the sidelines in early 2013 after he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome – a condition that can cause the heart to ‘short circuit’ and beat irregularly rapidly. Forced onto the sidelines, he took a job and excelled as color commentator at UFC events in the UK and Europe, but his true love still lies in competition. That’s why his goal this year is to put his health issues behind him, put his gloves back on and return to the Octagon.

“I’m still set on getting cleared to fight for the UFC,” he tells Fighters Only. “Really, I just want maybe two or three more fights. I’m not interested in chasing belts and rankings and stuff, I just want to compete more than anything. 

“I’ve spoken to Lorenzo (Fertitta, UFC CEO) and he’s very keen, but obviously it’s on me to go and see the doctors and get cleared, and do whatever tests they require me to do to feel comfortable that I can compete healthily. That’s a process that I’m going to start taking care of (this) year, now that I’m back in the UK.”

Although the transition from athlete to pundit can’t have been easy for the Englishman, the time away from fighting allowed Hardy to take an introspective look at himself and his training. As a result, Hardy will look to drop from welterweight to lightweight if and when he does return. He now has a much more practical training approach which suits his needs as an athlete far better than his former methods.

“I’m finding that I’m walking around at about 82kg (180lb) now, which is about 15kg (33lb) lighter than I used to be when I was fighting at welterweight,” he says. “It’s a much more comfortable weight class for me, I really feel like I can move better. 

“I can fight closer to what my real ability is as opposed to being bigger and stronger, which was kind of a preoccupation when I first signed with the UFC. I had time between fights so I could be a professional athlete, do a lot of heavy lifting and that kind of stuff. It kind of took me a bit away from the martial arts and I’m so much more agile at this weight.

“At the moment I’m doing a lot of bodyweight stuff, a lot of yoga, a lot of stretching. I’m trying to increase my flexibility and be able to move a bit more dynamically.”

In the fast-moving sport of MMA – and in the ultra-competitive UFC lightweight division in particular – Hardy knows he can’t predict how the landscape will look if and when he is granted his wish of a UFC return. 

“The 155lb division is so stacked,” says Dan. “I think there are more (great) fighters in that division than in any other division in the UFC put together. There are a lot of good opponents in that division for me. Because I’m not set on returning at a particular time it would be difficult to say where the landscape lies when I do return. I’m going at my own pace and when the time comes to step back in I’ll see who’s around and who would be a fun fight for me.”

Hardy is hungry to compete, but the ever-mindful 32-year-old has no interest in messing up the title contention picture. He says he’s just looking for a good fight. “There’s a lot of guys that are in the Top 10 and are potentially in contention for a title, and obviously I don’t want to be messing with their careers right now.”

Having said that, he does have a few potential opponents in mind: “It wouldn’t be right for me to step in and start calling people out, but at some point in the future a good striker like (Donald) ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone or Eddie Alvarez would be a great fight for me. It’d be a fun fight for me, a great test and these guys are very talented athletes.”

One man Dan has already expressed an interest in stepping into the UFC Octagon with is The Ultimate Fighter season 1 winner Diego Sanchez. ‘The Nightmare’ has been fighting as a professional for more than 12 years now but, at 33 years old, the level of his performances appears to have deteriorated over the past year or so.

Although he has said he likes and respects Sanchez, Hardy also says he believes the original TUF winner is “kind of the problem with mixed martial arts,” citing his deterioration as “the opposite to how martial artists should develop.”

“I’d love to fight Diego. I’d like it to be his last fight, to be honest,” Hardy says. “I want to see that guy retire pretty soon. We don’t need to see him getting punched in the face anymore and he’s not got any regard for his own safety, so I think he needs one fight to finish him off and get him out of the sport.”

His evolution as a martial artist, as well as a human being, is paramount for the 36-fight veteran from Nottingham, UK. To continue his improvement as a fighter, Hardy says he has been doing as much mental preparation as he has physical while he can’t commit to a full training camp.

“I’ve not been doing a great deal of sparring or actual hands-on stuff,” he says. “I’ve been doing a lot of technical stuff, a lot of shadow boxing, bag work and watching loads and loads of tape – just spending a lot of time doing a lot of visualization work and picturing myself doing techniques that I’m not really drilling. It’s helping me to grow my skillset without actually doing a lot of the physical work where we’re getting beaten up in the gym. 

“I’m looking forward to early (this) year when I’m going to start doing a lot more sparring and getting my timing back, but as of right now I’m quite excited because I feel like I have a different machine I’m working with right now. When I do start doing the more hands-on stuff next year I feel like it’s going to be a whole different story.

“Just dropping the weight that I was carrying has allowed me to start using techniques that I was struggling with before. In the last two years, I’ve watched more tape of fights than I have throughout my whole life, just sitting all day in front of fights watching stuff. Before I was always watching the fights from my perspective – how would I beat the guy? What does their skill-set offer to me? How does mine match up with theirs? Because I’m looking at it from an objective perspective now, I’m not involving myself in it.”

Now, thanks to Hardy’s aforementioned open-mindedness, he feels he is already seeing results in the gym. There are plenty of positives to be taken from his first experiences back on the mat.

“The little hands-on work I’ve done with grappling and sparring, it’s showing. I’ve had a couple of really good rounds recently on the mat. I feel like I’m seeing things differently to how I was when I was fighting because I was so single-minded. I was so focused on what I was doing. This has opened up my perspective to the bigger picture.”

During his time in the UFC Hardy earned a reputation as an aggressive and entertaining fighter, which won him legions of fans. Among those fans was Lorenzo Fertitta, who elected to keep Dan in the UFC even after the Brit went on a four-fight losing streak. Hardy ultimately rewarded Fertitta’s faith in him with a 2-0 rebound, including a KO victory over Duane Ludwig at UFC 146.

The question now is, with all his talk of change and evolution; will Hardy be the same exciting competitor if he does indeed return?

“No doubt,” he assures us. “My focus going into any fight is to do what a martial artist should do in that situation and try and deal with your opponent as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s always my focus. I would like to continue that style of fighting. I think, now that my weight is down, I would be far quicker. I would have a much larger arsenal to draw from as far as techniques go. 

“I really feel like I would like to bring back a much more traditional martial arts approach, as opposed to being the professional athlete. I’m an orthodox fighter and I stand orthodox and I’ve got a power left hook. Get rid of all these things that are confining me to a particular style and just allow my martial arts to shine and be in the moment. 

“Get rid of game planning and all this stuff. I’ve really changed my perspective over the past year or so. It’s hard to say until I get into training camp and see how things start to piece together. But I’m really excited about where I am now and my understanding of martial arts has never been deeper than it is today.”

Hardy on training too hard

Mixed martial arts was hit time and time again in 2014 by the dreaded injury bug. Having spent time on the outside looking in and reevaluating his own training, Hardy feels fighters need to take more care to prime their bodies and be at their best come fight time. 

“In this sport, we’re our own worst enemy. We always want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can in the gym to win the fight. Obviously, from a fighter’s perspective, we think the best thing to do is to spar hard and push ourselves and be uncomfortable all the time. I’m realizing now that a real professional athlete wouldn’t treat their body like we do a lot of the time. We need to look after ourselves and make sure that the machine we’re relying on to do our job is as healthy as it can be. A lot of guys step into these fights at less than 100%, and 100% should always be the goal. 

“A lot of it is counterproductive training – training too hard, sparring too hard, doing too many rounds, and working with the wrong people. This is something that’s been on the forefront of my mind, especially since I’ve been watching other people train. A lot of the time we struggle to find training partners, so you’ll bring a guy in who maybe feels like he has something to prove or he’s not on a suitable skill level for the fighters he’s working with. This is where accidents are happening.”

Hardy on competing outside of MMA

Hardy is committed to fighting in the UFC again, but it’s not the only fighting arena he’s considered. He could scratch a traditional martial arts itch too.

“I’d love to do some kickboxing matches, some Muay Thai perhaps. I just have to see how it plays out. There’s definitely some competition in me yet, even if it’s in something like Kendo. I need to be doing some kind of traditional martial arts competition to keep me on my toes.

“I haven’t competed in Kendo but I did a lot of training back in the day. It looks like a lot of fun. MMA is the pinnacle and you have to be on point or you can get injured. In Kendo you’re all wrapped up with a cage over your face. You can just beat the hell out of each other and get up for work on Monday morning. There’s less risk and it wouldn’t be as much pressure as MMA.”