• UFC 111

Hardy will be forced to face Daley as champion - Zelaznik

Paul Daley and Dan Hardy are on collision course © Getty Images

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Dan Hardy better face up to the fact that he may have to fight Team Rough House stablemate Paul Daley in the future, according to UFC UK president Marshall Zelaznik.

Hardy is currently preparing for the fight of his life on March 27, when he challenges for Georges St-Pierre's welterweight title at UFC 111. Hardy secured his shot with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Mike Swick, which rocketed him to the top of the 170lb food chain.

Should he walk away with St-Pierre's belt in New Jersey, Hardy knows there are a whole host of tough welterweights waiting to gun him down, including fighters of the calibre of Josh Koscheck, Paulo Thiago, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves.

However, one name missing from that list is Paul Daley, who fights out of the same gym as Hardy and arguably possesses more brute power than "The Outlaw". Having already knocked out Martin Kampmann and Dustin Hazelett, Daley takes on Koscheck at UFC 113, and victory would surely take him to within one more win of a title shot.

Hardy told Espn.co.uk on Tuesday that he would never fight his team-mate, but Zelaznik insists he may not get a choice if he becomes champion.

"This is one of those interesting issues that continually pops up, where fighters from the same camp won't fight each other," Zelaznik told Espn.co.uk.

"I think Dana says it best, at the end of the day, these guys have to fight each other. This isn't a team sport, these guys are professional, and we can only hope that if Dan and Paul's paths cross, they take on the challenge.

"At some point it's going to happen. You've got other cases like [Lyoto] Machida and [Anderson] Silva, so we'll see how it works out but I'm sure whenever two fighters have the conversation with (matchmaker) Joe Silva and (president) Dana White - it'll get worked out."

As for the fight itself, Zelaznik admits nobody working behind the scenes can rule out Hardy's chances of upsetting St-Pierre. The champion is undefeated in six fights and has a wrestling game that is expected by the majority of critics to overwhelm the Briton, but Hardy's high-class tactical and technical level makes Zelaznik uneasy about predicting a winner.

"Joe Silva says the longer this fight goes the more it'll belong to Dan because, typically, stand-up fighters don't use as much energy as the man trying to land takedowns. When all us guys kick it around everybody simplistically says: If Dan can figure out how to touch Georges it will be an interesting night."

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