I don’t even think Dan Hardy deserved his shot at GSP

EndlessCritic said:
Context is everything.

Mike Swick went 5-0 at middleweight before losing to Yushin Okami. This prompted him to drop to WW. He proceeded to go on a 4 fight win streak at WW.

With Fitch and Alves having recently lost to GSP, Hardy vs Swick was the clear #1 contender fight. Swick was a heavy favorite. Hardy won convincingly. Hardy earned the title shot.
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Before injuries and other life bullshit it looked like swick was gonna have a damn good career in the UFC, I always thought he lost too much pop moving down to WW.

I mean he held the record for fastest ko for a while..

Mike “Quick” Swick
 
Tabarnakos said:
It was clearly not a good idea to trade blow for blow with NBK
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Nbk’s shot hit clear on the button, Hardy’s was off the mark a hair.

timing was almost dead even, that exchange easily could have gone the other direction.

but yeah just open firing was a bad decision from both sides. Nbk got lucky on that one imo.
 
OldBoy91 said:
Context is key mate. Swick (who was like 9-1 in the UFC) was set to fight Kampmann for the next crack at GSP. Swick got hurt so Kampmann fought a debuting Paul Daley instead and got wrecked, which made Swick the clear #1 contender. Swick took a fight with Hardy to put a stamp on his contender status and was thoroughly beaten the whole fight long.

Hardy was a young, fresh marketable face in the division at the time who had just knocked off the clear top contender in an upset and was unbeaten in the UFC, his title shot was deserved.

Hindsight is 20/20 but at the time the fight made complete sense.
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Many at the time thought Hardy would be big problems for Gsp, who had fought a string of wrestlers at the time pretty much and were saying a bigger striker like Hardy was gonna he the answer.

It was the one GSP fight who I didn’t know who to root for, Inwas a Hardy fan at the time(still am I guess) and didn’t care who one. Only fight Gsp has been in I’ve watched where I felt that way.

If he had fought Penn earlier in his career I might have rooted for Penn.
 
Dbreiden83080 said:
That is a shitty way to lose.. Both throw the same punch, and you get there 1/2 second too late..
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Condits placement was better landed square on the button, Hardy’s glanced the side of the jaw..
 
Well TS you better jump in the DeLorean and go correct that shit right now.
 
Anyone who was watching at the time knows there was nobody else. Every champ has defenses like that. Because guys are injured, have knocked one another out of contention, or the champs cleared the division. Or the division is weak. In fact, some champs have a number of defenses like that


<BC1>
 
Hardy earned his title shot more than many many fighters earn theirs. All the way back to Randy Couture fighting against Big Timmeh when his last fight was a KO loss at LHW.
 
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Look at it from the context of the landscape at the time of the fight. GSP had pretty much cleared out the division.

He'd defended his title against Thiago Alves, BJ Penn and Jon Fitch after beating Matt Serra in a rematch... and that was following beating Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck. Apart from BJ (and it pains me to say it) who while a former WW champion I'd say was unranked but got the shot after largely clearing out his division as well, that's pretty much the top 5 in the division.

Dan Hardy was pretty much the right guy in the right place at the right time. He'd come in, got 4 wins in a year, including against solid name veterans in the way of Mike Swick and Marcus Davis. He was good on the stick and could sell a fight. Yeah, his losing streak after probably shows he was probably in over his head, but you can't hate on the guy for taking the fight. He was given a opportunity and shot his shot and I'm sure the fight probably would be the biggest payday of his career.

GSP didn't fight again for another 6 odd months. They had to go back, have him coach TUF to ry to sell a rematch with Koscheck after.

If anything, GSP-Hardy should be the a lesson on booking fights in MMA. If there's a fight that make sense, book it and bankthe money because you never know what's going to happen next.
 
Mike said:
Anyone who was watching at the time knows there was nobody else. Every champ has defenses like that. Because guys are injured, have knocked one another out of contention, or the champs cleared the division. Or the division is weak. In fact, some champs have a number of defenses like that


<BC1>
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Thats exactly what it was. GSP had beaten all the other contenders at the time. Same as when Anderson fought Cote, or Jones fighting OSP and Anthony Smith. Those guys didn't necessarily deserve title shots, but they were the best available at the time.

That said, I kind of remember feeling that Hardy got lucky with the Marcus Davis and the Gono nods. I thought those should have gone the other way
 
90 50 said:
Before injuries and other life bullshit it looked like swick was gonna have a damn good career in the UFC, I always thought he lost too much pop moving down to WW.

I mean he held the record for fastest ko for a while..

Mike “Quick” Swick
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Swick had not much business at 185 imo. The guy didn't even cut weight at MW.

I dont think he lost much pop for going down to WW, but he wasn't facing as slow and stationary targets plus he had some heath issues that really pull him back, otherwise I think he could have made a good career at 170
 
Hardy is overrated. Conor 2.0 would KTFO him in the very first exhange 100 out of 100 fights.
 
The shot made sense, Hardy had the best winning streak at the time and division was dry on contenders. GSP went through Hughes, Penn superfight, Ftich, Alves that were legit contenders.

Around 2009 to 2011 the division was dry on new contenders and we got fights like Koscheck, which was a rematch, Josh had a 3 fight win streak and 4-2 in his last 6 bouts and we got Hardy after. Around this time the UFC took over WEC and we got Condit, they signed Nick Diaz and Jake Shields, Hendricks was moving up so there were new contenders.

Same thing happened at MW between 2008 to 2010, Anderson fought Cote and Leitas, even had time to take 2 bouts at LHW.
 
JKS said:
The shot made sense, Hardy had the best winning streak at the time and division was dry on contenders. GSP went through Hughes, Penn superfight, Ftich, Alves that were legit contenders.

Around 2009 to 2011 the division was dry on new contenders and we got fights like Koscheck, which was a rematch, Josh had a 3 fight win streak and 4-2 in his last 6 bouts and we got Hardy after. Around this time the UFC took over WEC and we got Condit, they signed Nick Diaz and Jake Shields, Hendricks was moving up so there were new contenders.

Same thing happened at MW between 2008 to 2010, Anderson fought Cote and Leitas, even had time to take 2 bouts at LHW.
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Coté fought Silva as injury replacement for Okami
Leites got the shot after a highly controversal tittle eliminator vs Nate Marquardt.

In normal circunstamces, Silva would have fought Okami and Nate in that 2008-2009 period between Henderson and Grfiffin
 
Leitas had that controversial win over Nate, but he still beat another opponent after the Nate fight to solidify the title shot. He had a 5 fight win streak going and was the best contender they had. Leitas was a better opponent than Nate at the time. I don't think Nate did much after getting easily finished by Anderson in 07, him getting a shot would be even more of an indication the division was lacking good contenders at the time. Both Cote and Okami were good contenders. Either way, the time from 08 to 09, even 10 MW was lacking the contenders it had early and post 2010. Even Maia in 10, was coming off a win over Miller I think and fight before got KO'd by Nate. He did have an impressive streak prior, but again, 1-1.
 
JKS said:
Leitas had that controversial win over Nate, but he still beat another opponent after the Nate fight to solidify the title shot. He had a 5 fight win streak going and was the best contender they had. Leitas was a better opponent than Nate at the time. I don't think Nate did much after getting easily finished by Anderson in 07, him getting a shot would be even more of an indication the division was lacking good contenders at the time. Both Cote and Okami were good contenders. Either way, the time from 08 to 09, even 10 MW was lacking the contenders it had early and post 2010. Even Maia in 10, was coming off a win over Miller I think and fight before got KO'd by Nate. He did have an impressive streak prior, but again, 1-1.
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Tbf, Maia was a late replacement for Vitor. He wasn't supposed to get the title shot then.
 
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Didn't hardy beat Swick for a shot at GSP? that's it, and the rest is history.
 
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