• UFC 111

A fighter always beats an athlete - Hardy

Dan Hardy is targeting Georges St-Pierre's chin at UFC 111 © Getty Images

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• Profile: Dan Hardy | Georges St-Pierre

Dan Hardy has promised to show the difference between a fighter and an athlete on March 27 when he challenges Georges St-Pierre for the UFC welterweight title.

Hardy, who fights out of Nottingham, has grown tired of hearing that he is out of his depth against two-time champion GSP, who has beaten the sport's biggest names in Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves.

St-Pierre's team-mate Nate Marquardt is the latest to voice his opinion on the UFC 111 main event, insisting Hardy is in for a painful evening. "There is going to be a point in this fight when Hardy realizes he shouldn't be in there with Georges and he is way in over his head," Marquardt told the UFC Primetime show. "That's where the fight is going to turn. And it's going to be all Georges."

Hardy is never shy of some trash talk himself having famously psyched out Marcus Davis ahead of their clash at UFC 99. However, this is the first time he is genuinely considered a rank outsider since he first stepped inside the Octagon, with St-Pierre seemingly the better athlete, the better wrestler, and the better ground guy.

Alves, Fitch and Penn were completely overwhelmed by the sheer physical power of St-Pierre in painful duels with the champion during his last three fights, but Hardy insists technique always usurps athleticism.

"As far as saying I'm not a martial artist…Because he walks out in the Octagon in his pyjamas he's a martial artist and I'm not?" the Briton quipped.

"He knows nothing about me. I've been doing martial arts my whole life. I'll brawl but I think about what I'm doing. I'm a cerebral fighter. Martial arts is about going to war and it's about messing people up. And that's what I'm going to do.

"You can't put muscles here (pointing to his face). He can jump higher than me. He can lift trucks. It makes no difference to me. When I connect on his chin he can lift all he wants, he's still going down."

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