|
|
Dan Hardy Exclusive Interview Part 2
23 Jun 2008
If you missed Part 1 of this interview don't worry you can still catch up Here.
In part 2 of this Exclusive interview Dan gives us an insight into whats on his iPod and who his hero was growing up.
He also gives his thoughts on the MMA scene in the UK and has some choice words for a certain UK based promotion.
MMA Hit Pit: Apart from a title fight, who would you like to fight (in the UFC)?
Dan: I’ve been thinking about this to be honest. I speak to Joe Silva every
now and then, and he’s quite keen to know what my take on the situation
is, and who I’d like to fight. I really don’t know. I look at the UFC
and see so many guys and think “I’d be excited to fight them” that it
would be too hard to make a decision. I cant decide if I wanna fight a
good wrestler, a good jiu jitsu guy, or someone who will stand and trade
with me as I’ve not really had that so much in my career. Everybody
offers a different challenge to me. There are a lot of guys in there
that I think would be great fights, really good fun, like Marcus Davies,
and Mike Swick…guys that will stand and trade, so I can start doing some
crazy stuff, and knocking people out! But I don’t mind. Josh Burkman
would be a good fight ‘cos he’s tough and durable. Obviously Yoshiyuki
Yoshida will be a great rematch so I can knock him the hell out. I’m
looking forward to seeing the Jon Fitch vs. GSP fight and then I can see
where the rest of the division stands, as I’m kinda torn on who’s gonna
win that. I think after these next couple of UFC events, the WW
division’s gonna fall into place a lot more and I’ll be able to see
where people are at and where I’m at in the division as well. Thiago
Alves would be a great fight, as it would be so much fun kicking the
hell out of each others legs. It’s a hard decision ‘cos its so exciting
to be in the UFC and having the opportunity to fight these guys. I
couldn’t make a decision.
MMA Hit Pit: Who do you look up to in the MMA world?
Dan: I didn’t have anybody that I looked at and thought “that guys amazing, I
wanna be just like him”. There were a lot of guys that I took little
bits from…I’ve always liked Anderson Silva. I remember watching him
fighting at Cage Rage…that was something special. Randy Couture because
he can adapt to anybody he’s fighting, no matter who they are. BJ Penn
just because he’s technically phenomenal, but I cant stand to watch him
‘cos he’s just so lazy! (laughs) Sean Sherk for his work and
tenacity…his circuit training is intense. Little bits from everybody
really. A lot of boxers I watch are Ricky Hatton. I love Ricky Hatton’s
belief in himself and how humble he is. Roy Jones Junior, love watching
him. I’ve kinda built my own hero out of little bits of loads of
fighters, all the regular guys really.
MMA Hit Pit: Did you have a hero when you were growing up?
Dan: I still have a huge poster of Bruce Lee on my wall, a huge poster. I was
actually watching Enter The Dragon last night! I know it’s very cliched
for a martial artist to say it, but Bruce Lee, if he was around now…I
mean, I would love to see him fight Urijah Faber, it would be fantastic.
His work ethic, his belief in himself, the way he dismantled the game
and took out what he didn’t need, he was way ahead of his time…he pretty
much created MMA…exactly. Winning by armbar against Sammo Hung at the
start of Enter The Dragon. Nobody every paid any attention to it. He was
way ahead of his game.
MMA Hit Pit: If you weren’t a fighter, what would you be doing?
Dan: I’ve often given this quite a bit of thought actually, ‘cos I did Art at
University believe it or not, but I don’t think I would have carried on
with that. I would maybe have been a tattooist, I would quite like to
have done that. Or maybe a designer of some sort. I’ve always been
involved with martial arts, so I’ve never experienced my life without
it…it’s difficult to think about it.
MMA Hit Pit: Do you design your own tattoos?
Dan: I do actually. The skull and crossbones on my leg, they were kind of
adapted from Blood For Blood, the hardcore band. I adapted them
slightly. The one on my stomach I designed myself. The one on the inside
of my lip took me 2 minutes to draw! I’ve got pretty much a full body
suit designed, it’s just getting the time to do it. I’ve got 2 full
sleeves ready to get done, 2 tattoos on my back, sides of my
legs…there’s so much I wanna get done, it’s just finding the time. I
just don’t have time between training, but I always sit there scribbling!
MMA Hit Pit: Music’s quite a big part of your life we understand, especially
hardcore. What sort of bands did you listen to growing up, and what sort
of bands are you listening to now?
Dan: When I was a kid, my mum and dad both listened to music quite a lot. My
dad was into punk…Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, people like that. My
mum was into people like Blondie, Dire Straits, so I spent a lot of time
listening to that kind of stuff. Madness are still one of my favourite
bands that I just listen to all the time. That influenced my choices in
music when I got older. When I got to school, I started listening to
things like Megadeth, not so much Metallica, but bands like
that…Pantera, Slayer, all the metal or power metal bands. When I got a
little bit older, I started listening to more hardcore stuff, like
Biohazard, Madball, Sick Of It All, but I’ve always had a really diverse
taste in music…I’ve just got the new Duffy album. Amy Winehouse I listen
to a lot. Frank Sinatra, people like that. And then I’ve got loads of
old stuff…Motown, things like that. My last fight, I came out to Nowhere
To Run by Martha & The Vandella’s. My girlfriend has influenced my music
a lot recently, she’s from the East Coast (of America) and she’s got a
whole load of bands I’ve never heard of before, like Darkest Hour, so
she’s started throwing loads at me as well. My iPod’s got 19gb of music
on it, all entirely different. At the moment, I’m particularly listening
to Crass, proper raw punk sounding stuff, but next will it will be
something different! I know The Beat are playing Los Angeles soon, so
I’m gonna go see them, bit of old school ska.
MMA Hit Pit: What motivates you to get into the cage?
Dan: I love competition. I love the feeling of winning. Leaving the arena
after the fight, knowing I can take a couple of days off, sit around and
eat chocolate and everybody’s gonna be coming up to me going “you did
great” y’know, I love that. I won’t lie to you, I like hitting people,
it’s fantastic. I spend hours and hours hitting bags and pads and
thinking “if I hit somebody with this, it’s gonna really hurt”, and just
having the opportunity to do that without getting in trouble for it.
Also, being able to piece together techniques, and taking people apart…I
really am quite a cerebral fighter. I do like to take people apart
during the fight, that’s why I don’t tend to get a lot of 1st round
stoppages, ‘cos I don’t go in there just wailing on people. I like to
break them down, take them apart. I like that part of the game, the
chess side of it where you can slowly take bits away from your opponent.
MMA Hit Pit: What goes through your head when you lose a fight?
Dan: It’s the worst feeling in the world, I cant imagine feeling worse than
that. For me, losing is not about getting beat by somebody else, it’s
about going out there and not performing to my best. If I perform to my
best I can beat anybody, I know that. It’s disappointment in myself, and
letting people down. I trained so hard, so many people have helped me
out and supported me and I feel that to go back to these people and say
“look, sorry, I didn’t do it.”…A great quote from a film that I watch
quite a lot called Friday Night Lights is “it’s not about winning or
losing, it’s about being perfect”. What he meant by that was going out
there and giving 110% and being able to look at everyone who helped you
out along the way and saying “I did everything I could”. I’ve never had
a loss where I felt like I gave 100%, I’ve never been able to step out
of the octagon and say “well I lost, but I gave it everything”. Whenever
I’ve lost, it’s always been my fault.
MMA Hit Pit: You’re quite a student of the game…
Dan: Oh without a doubt. I will always be a student of the game, even when
I’m 60 years old and teaching people. I will still be learning, there
will always be something else. That’s the wonderful thing about martial
arts, you will never get to the end of the journey as there’s always
another path after that.
MMA Hit Pit: What do you think of the MMA scene in the UK just now?
Dan: I think its improved a hell of a lot over the last few years, and a lot
of people are getting involved with it. I think there are a lot of
people supporting it because they want to support it, not because they
see themselves getting anything out of it. Unfortunately, there are
people who think “I can make a few quid out of this” and they come in
and they’ll do something stupid that will take a bit away from it. But
for the most part, everyone pulls together and helps each other out. I
know a lot of fighters email backwards and forwards, guys you would
never think would speak to each other, always emailing each other,
texting each other, wishing each other luck and stuff, because
everyone’s going through the same situation, so it’s good to get behind
other UK fighters. I mean, Jess Liaudin, I consider him a UK fighter
‘cos he’s been here so long, we speak quite a lot and Brad Pickett,
whenever I see him we have a good speak. It’s just such a nice community
and I don’t think they have that much in America because it’s such a big
place and it’s really quite competitive, especially in California where
there’s a lot of competition between gyms in the same town. There’s a
lot of smack talking, a lot of nonsense on the internet, and you really
don’t get that over here which is nice. I think everyone’s kinda pulled
together with the common goal of progressing UK MMA. We really are up
against it against the rest of the world, so I think that in itself has
brought the country together, and I think we’re progressing fast, faster
than any other country in the world in martial arts.
MMA Hit Pit: (talking about the recent cancellation of QFC3) What do you think is
holding UK events back?
Dan: I think a lot of the problems with MMA, not just with the shows, is the
lack of professionalism. I think a lot of people think they can do
something, then when they actually realise how much it takes to get a
show off the ground and things like that, they start having second
thoughts. Plus the fighters don’t help the situation at all. A lot of
guys will pull out of fights the week before, and the amount of times
I’ve seen a fight card fall apart because of 3 or 4 guys who thought “I
don’t feel like fighting.”…I heard an excuse once “my mum don’t want me
to fight”! (laughs) I genuinely have heard that! It’s that kind of
thing. With MMA growing so fast, there’s so many people who think they
can get in there and have a go. There’s a thread on the internet, about
people who call themselves cage fighters. We call them ‘air guitarists’
over in America…they talk a good game but they get in there and get
their ass kicked. It’s that kind of thing that’s holding the sport back
in this country. Partly to do with the fact that we don’t have a union
or commission, that’s a problem for promoters putting shows together
with reliable fighters. Also, promoters trying to cut corners and get
cheaper fighters as well. They’ll get a guy on, “oh yeah, I’ll fight
semi-pro and sell 300 tickets” and then he don’t show up to the weigh
ins. The shows that tend to invest a little bit more in the card, tend
to do a hell of a lot better, like Cage Warriors. Cage Warriors have a
few local guys at the bottom of the card, introducing them to MMA, give
them a bit of experience, then at the top of the cards always got good
fighters on it. They’re not afraid to invest that kinda money. They
still have a lot of trouble with reliable fighters and stuff, but not as
many as other shows. I think it’s down to the professionalism of the
fighters and promoters.
MMA Hit Pit: What do you think will help bring a casual UFC fan over to the UK MMA
scene and start attending local shows?
Dan: I think it depends where you live. A lot of the shows in the North East
are really where a lot of the problems with MMA are. There are a hell of
a lot of guys up there that are doormen and think “oh we’ll put on a
show, we’ll borrow a cage off a mate” so really, for somebody in
Scotland to see a good UK MMA show, they’ve really gotta travel, at
least down to Nottingham I’d say. Doncaster’s good, they’ve got Ultimate
Force, but anything further North than that and you really struggle. I
had high hopes for Cage Gladiators but I got hit with a chair when I was
there. I was cornering Jimmy (Wallhead) and somebody threw a chair at
me, a metal chair. It’s that kind of stuff that you don’t need. You tend
to find the kind of fans that go to the smaller shows really have no
idea about what MMA is about. I’ve been to some shows before, and the
first thing I do when I get there is find the nearest fire escape, just
so I know where it is. It’s a shame that its like that, but again, it
all depends on who you have on the card. This is my theory on fighters
and ticket sales…if you get a fighter than can sell 1000 tickets, the
reason they can do that is because between the gym and home, they go to
the pub. They know all the guys in the pub, and those are the kind of
guys who go “oh yeah, we wanna go see such and such fight” and they’re
the guys who hang around in the pub and drink, go lift weights, take
steroids, cause troubles in town, things like that. I’ve never been a
fantastic ticket seller to people I know around me ‘cos I don’t go out.
I don’t drink. I go from the gym, to my house and back again. And then
you get a guy on the card who’s a doorman in town and sells 300 tickets,
and we’ll put him on the card ‘cos he’ll make us some money. But then he
brings all his mates who really aren’t the kind of guys that we want at
an MMA show, and they just bring the atmosphere down. It becomes kind of
hostile, your general MMA fan doesn’t want to come to the place so your
show doesn’t get too much exposure ‘cos the media types don’t wanna go
there as well. It is all down to the promoters investing a little bit
more money in the card and being more picky about the fighters and not
getting, me mate Dave, who works on the door at Isis or whatever.
MMA Hit Pit: There’s a lot of people out there trying to make money instead of
selling the sport…
Dan: Definitely. I think there are certain shows, big shows, that have got a
lot of money behind them in the UK that are giving people fights that
really shouldn’t be fighting on a big show. I don’t wanna name any
names, but the time will come when people will begin to realise this and
I think the shows starting to go downhill a lot. Guys that aren’t
athletes, that’s the main thing. A lot of guys say they train martial
arts, say they’re mixed martial artists, cage fighters, that go there
lift weights, they’ll take steroids, snort coke before the fight and
they’ll go in there and have a tear up and all their mates will be
cheering and drinking. That’s the whole problem, the quality of he
fighters you put on the card.
MMA Hit Pit: Do you think we need to fight to get more UK MMA on TV?
Dan: I definitely think Cage Warriors should have more TV time, I really do.
I think somebody, if a big TV company come in and say “right ok, we’re
gonna use this product, produce it better and put it on TV” would be
fantastic for Cage Warriors. Personally, and I don’t wanna piss anybody
off, but I don’t think Cage Rage should be on TV, I’m glad it’s not. The
last 3 fights probably are sometimes worthy of TV, but the majority of
time it’s shit. No offence to any of the guys that fight, and a lot of
them are friends of mine, the shows just diabolical. They’re flying guys
over from America who are has beens, to fight guys that are never gonna
be’s in the UK. They’ve got a couple of legitimate British champions,
Abdul (Mohammed) for instance, who’s been stripped of his belt. the
reason probably is because they cant afford to pay his money to fight,
and they get 2 guys from London and I’ve never heard of the guys. No
disrespect to the guys, I’m sure they’ve got a lot of potential, but how
have they put themselves in contention for a British title? I mean,
realistically, the next weight up is WW, and Paul Daley’s the champion.
I’m not blowing smoke up his ass ‘cos he’s my team mate, but he’s beaten
Duane Ludwig, Mark Weir, Sammy Morgan, he fights in EliteXC, he deserves
a British title and a World title. These guys are being put in the same
class as Paul Daley because they’ve got a British title, and they
shouldn’t be. It’s that kind of sneaky business, get his belt off him
and we’ll get my mate and your mate to fight for it and everyone will
win ‘cos we’ll sell tickets.
MMA Hit Pit: The HW champion Tengiz (Tedoradze) had some harsh words to say about
Cage Rage recently as well…
Dan: Yeah. The argument they gave for it was that they got beaten outside of
CR, which is arguable for Tengiz as he did lose to another UK fighter.
but Abdul is not, because he lost to a Brazilian guy, and he’s got a
British title, so how does that work? You cant lose a British title to a
Brazilian import coming in, even in Cage Rage. I’m proud to say I’ve
never fought for them. I’ve been tempted a couple of times, but I’m glad
I’ve never fought for them as I really don’t think they do anything for
the UK MMA scene.
MMA Hit Pit: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years time?
Dan: UFC champ. I think in 5 years time I will have done the majority of
things I want to in the UFC, and I will have made the decision whether
to go up or down a weight class as well. I think the older I get, the
more difficult it’s gonna be to move down to LW, so I might move up to
Middleweight (MW) and have a go there, just because I’m greedy and like
competition. I think within 5 years, I will at least have had my hands
on the UFC title and moved on, and if not, still got it. That’s my
intention anyway.
MMA Hit Pit: Well Dan its been a pleasure meeting with you and can we once again say thank you for taking the time out to spend with us and help launch mmahitpit.com, would you like to give a shout out to anyone?
Dan: Yeah my sponsors Fightshop.com, TapouT, 10th Planet, My Protein, Roko everyone at Legends and Xtreme Couture and the guys at The Rough House if I missed anyone out you all know who you are anyways.
Photos courtesy of www.danhardymma.com
Don't forget to register with us, to receive monthly newsletters informing you of what's recently been updated and what's going on with the Hit Pit.
|
|