• Dan Hardy

The time for GSP talk is over, let's fight - Hardy

Dan Hardy will become the first British fighter to contest a UFC title when he faces welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 111 in Newark, New Jersey. In the weeks leading up to the March 27 bout, Dan will provide a weekly blog for Espn.co.uk.

Just two weeks until fight night now, we're reaching the business end of my training camp and everything is bang on course for March 27. I flew out to the US at the start of the week to acclimatise, but more importantly to step up my training ahead of facing GSP. For those of you wondering, jet lag's no problem whatsoever; it's only five hours' difference between Nottingham and New Jersey so it's not a big deal at all.

I'm totally on track with my weight too, there's no way that is getting in the way of this title fight, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. The "England Belongs to Me" track has also been re-recorded with my voice on it, so even the walk-out music is prepared. I am ready.

Time for the talking to stop
As for the fight itself, it's kind of reaching that time in the training camp when all the talking has been done. The fact is, whether you believe in me or not, in two weeks' time Georges St-Pierre will be stood opposite me. Anything else is just speculation.

Having said that, it was nice to hear Mike Swick say I deserve the title shot the other day. I've always thought Swick was a good guy and I was quite surprised after our fight at UFC 105 when he questioned my right to contest the title. But any fighter knows losing is not nice, it was difficult for him to deal with because he was close to getting a title shot of his own only to trip at the final hurdle. The same thing happened for him at middleweight with Yushin Okami.

The truth is, he was dwelling on his loss to me a little too much, and it was threatening to affect the rest of his career, kind of like what's happened with Marcus Davis. Now that Mike's settled and accepted the loss, he's a top fighter and he'll start picking up some more victories - particularly if he mixes up his game like he recently stated he would do.

Moving in for the kill
That Swick fight should not be seen as the template for how I'm going to beat GSP though. Fighters are all different in many different ways. Swick is dangerous when you step forwards towards him, he throws that right hand out there with a lot of power so, when I had him rocked, I was conscious of leaping on him and getting clipped. In retrospect, I was probably too cautious - I could have got him out of there earlier.

GSP's different. If I catch him and see that he's hurt, I'm all over him.

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