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Hardy trusts nobody in build-up to UFC Live main event

Dan Hardy was held down by Anthony Johnson © Getty Images

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Dan Hardy insists he will not make the mistake of assuming Chris Lytle will stand-and-bang in their UFC Live main event on August 14.

Hardy called out Lytle following his last loss to Anthony Johnson, which saw the Brit put on his back for all three rounds. The style of the fight came as a shock to many, who had expected Hardy and Johnson - two strikers - to duke it out.

Now the Outlaw heads into another potential barnburner, against an opponent in Lytle who once picked up three consecutive Fight of the Night cheques. However, the 36-year-old also has a dangerous submissions arsenal, and Hardy insists he will never again make the mistake of expecting a fighter to stick to his word.

"I can't expect anything from anybody anymore, I'm over trusting people," Hardy told the Winnipeg Free Press. "I learned that lesson in my last fight.

"Obviously, Chris Lytle isn't the kind of guy that would want to disappoint the fans and kind of hold somebody down for 15 minutes, I can't imagine the fight's going to be like that. But either way I've got to be prepared for it.

"Like people keep telling me, it's mixed martial arts not kickboxing and I need to be a wrestler as well as a striker. I'm going to work on everything, regardless. The reality is I've been in this sport a long time and I've stopped a lot of takedowns and I've taken a lot of people down. It just so happens that the two fights that I did lose were to good wrestlers and they were on national TV.

"I've been training wrestling and jiu-jitsu since I got into the sport. It's just something that's not always been available to me. It's something that I've made an effort to seek out and now I've really got to switch my focus and put some more time into it."

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