It’s a fine time of year, as spring promises an end to weekly blizzards and the UFC is in the midst of a full-on binge that means almost endless MMA for all. The latest offering isUFC 111 “St. Pierre vs. Hardy,” which airs Saturday on pay-per-view from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.After a lifetime spent as the second-class citizens of MMA, the Northeast is finally getting a major league UFC show and it’s headlined by pound-for-pound poster boyGeorges St. Pierre defending his welterweight strap against British trashtalker/face-smasher Dan Hardy.
Rounding out the main card is an interim heavyweight title bout starring Frank Mir’s bionic body and Shane Carwin’s sun-blocking body as well as a trio of quality bouts set to bring the violence.
So get your reading glasses, brew up a fresh pot of coffee and grab your illest cardigan for another round of manly prognostication and analysis.
Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
The Breakdown: After snuffing out the title aspirations of everyone from Thiago Alves toJon Fitch, incumbent monarch Georges St. Pierre is starting to make the wildly competitive welterweight landscape look more like a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Perhaps then no one is as qualified to take him on as Dan Hardy, a pinpoint kill-shot artist who looks like he just stepped off the set of “Mad Max.”
Escaping the fate of past challengers is a relatively straightforward proposition for Hardy: He must find a way to stuff the light speed takedowns of St. Pierre. While Hardy certainly exceeded expectations by shutting down Mike Swick’s wrestling in their bout at UFC 105, St. Pierre exists in a different dimension wrestling-wise than the rest of the division.
Considering the guard game has never been a pillar of Hardy’s style, he’s going to have to rely on maximizing whatever time he gets on the feet. Expecting the Canadian quicksilver to simply oblige his desire for a kickboxing match is dicey at best, and Hardy just doesn’t have the caliber of takedown defense to thwart a mat battle.
On the mat St. Pierre has shown solid, accurate ground-and-pound as well as vastly underrated grappling acumen. Meanwhile Hardy struggled with the takedowns and grappling of Marcus Davis, a converted boxer, at UFC 99. Struggling with Davis, a solid gatekeeper, is about as good an omen of success for Hardy as a murder of crows falling dead from the sky every time he starts training.
Even assuming success on the feet for Hardy severely underestimates St. Pierre’s ability, as he has more than held his own standing with the likes of leg kick connoisseur Thiago Alves and the oil slick boxing of B.J. Penn. Much like St. Pierre’s past challengers, Hardy should feel proud that he earned a title shot and be ready to understand why “Rush” is one of the greatest fighters this generation has ever seen.
The Bottom Line: Hardy is going to be an entertaining presence in the welterweight division for a long time. A potential bout with his equally truculent rival Josh Koscheckdown the road would make for one of the most epic displays of pre-fight vitriol in modern times. With that said, St. Pierre is like refined King Cobra venom to one-dimensional strikers like Hardy.
It would be far from unbelievable if Hardy starched St. Pierre, though. Opponents suicidal enough to throw down with Hardy are putting their short-term health at risk. However, St. Pierre is becoming a more and more cerebral athlete, which is a terrifying trend for both Hardy and anyone else banking on goading St. Pierre into a low-rent brawl. A dominating performance for St. Pierre reaches its inevitable conclusion with an overdue tapout from Hardy in the third round.
UFC 111 Preview: Carwin V/S Mir
Mirs last fight was against UFC heavyweight Check Kongo. mir timed the perfect oppurtunitty and cracked Kongo on the chin, Dazed Kongo fell to the canvas as he sprawls and lets Mir grab ahold of the neck. Non-greedily Mir accepts this invitation and defeats Kongo first round guilottene. Mir has a very strong jui-jitsu base and this is because he beleives that most of the heavyweight competitors use wrestling and boxing but if he could be explosive, fast and powerfull also using alot of technique like the lightweights then that will make a difference fighting against heavyweights.
Carwin has fought very tough opponents worthy enough to be in the UFC and torn his way through them all, after just comming off his last win to gabriel gonzaga by knockout he showed alot of skill, strength and heart. He got hit with hard hands, tooken down, ground and pounded and then at the end of it all got back up to hos feet and was able to knock out the dangerouse muay thai striker Gonzaga.
Mir thinks that carwin is a better opponent then Lesnar cause Brock lesnar can knock guys out but shane carwin can KNOCK guys out. Mir says all Lesnar does is lay on you and lays his clubs of hands across your face, but Carwin wow thats a guy who could really knock a guy out. And for the exact reason of watching him fight Gonzaga. Getting cracked on the head hard being tooken down and being hit harder on the ground then standing it up and using technique to land his punch (uppercut) right on the jaw.
And in only a time of 2 days we will be hearing the amazing bruce buffer announce these 2 fighters and watch this exciting fight only on payperview
Prefight Overview: UFC 111 GSP vs Hardy
Overview by Adam Kenneth Droog
On March 27th two modern warriors will square off in a cage fighting event for the welterweight title, Dan Hardy vs. Georges St Pierre. Dan hardy is the first british fighter to get a title shot in the UFC. this will be George's fourth time defending his welterweight title since defeating Matt Serra at UFC 83.
With dan hardy coming off of the win over Mike Swick and St. pierre comming off the Distruction of Thiago Alves both should be willing to make this an exciting fight. Hardy used to fight in cage wars before joining UFC in late 2008.
Dan hardy has been training his ground excapes so if at any point in the fight does get caught on the ground he should know what to do. But lots of fighters under estimate GSP's ground game. you can't know how good he is until you face him. Hardy also has a very under estimated left hook wich he bloodied and swelled Akihiro Gono with at UFC 89 and then was able to knock out Rory Markham with at UFC 95. Dan Hardy next faced Marcus Davis at UFC 99 on June 13, 2009. The grudge between these two men began with the Irish-American Davis fighting in the UK against local fighters and defeating them all in spectacular fashion. Hardy stated that the UK was his home and he did not want Davis in it, building a fan base. It started to get personal when Hardy began openly insulting Davis calling him a fake Irishman and stating that Davis' website "looked like a St. Patrick's day gift shop blew up." and for Dan hardy will be a wall and that is the 4 time defending top welter weight and pound for pound fighter in the world, georges rush st. pierre. weighing in at 170 pounds this man is a serious wrestler. also gsp has very good stand up with tko wins over great fighters like sherk, hughes and serra he is the top prospect in the world of mma. the 2 time ufc welterweight champion and once a tko canadian champion gearge st pierre is a wrecking machine. fighting in the ufc has been a dream for gsp and even now he is still amazed! in 2008 gsp was ranked best canadian athlete of the year by rogers sports net. Georges St-Pierre was born May 19, 1981 in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, to Jim and Louise St-Pierre. St-Pierre had a difficult childhood, attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money. He started learning Kyokushin karate at age seven by his father and later by a Kyokushin Karate Master to defend himself against a school bully. He took up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after his karate teacher died, and he also trained in boxing. Before turning pro as a mixed-martial artist, St-Pierre worked as a bouncer at a Montreal night club in the South Shore called Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to pay for his school fees.St-Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St-Pierre had his first amateur bout when he was only 16 years old. He said, "When I won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I beat a guy that was 25. I was only a Kyokushin karate fighter and the guy I fought was a boxer. At the time my ground skills were very poor, I didn't know anything on the ground." St-Pierre won his fight by knockout, going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a kick to the head.
St-Pierre's pro debut was against Branden Macfadden, and the fight ended in a first round to-knockout win by St-Pierre. In only his second fight, St-Pierre's challenge for the UCC belt against Justin Bruckmann. He won by an arm bar in the first round. He then went on to defend his title twice. The UCC aka Universal Combat Challenge was then converted to TKO Major League MMA and he was named the champion. He fought on November 29, 2003 against Pete Spratt in a non-title bout at TKO 14. St-Pierre defeated Spratt with a rear naked choke in the first round. St Pierre has fought some great fighters in the ufc as well, St-Pierre made his UFC debut at UFC 46, where he defeated Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision. His next fight in the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. St-Pierre defeated Hieron via technical knockout in only 1:42 of the first round.
Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 1 second remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre's career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout. after that gsp came back more determined than ever.
After his loss to Matt Hughes, St-Pierre rebounded with a win over Dave Strasser at TKO 19 by a first-round kimura submission. He then returned to the UFC to face Jason "Mayhem" Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision in a bloody battle.
St-Pierre was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54. St-Pierre controlled the fight and eventually snuck in a rear naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round. He then faced future lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56. Midway through the second round, St-Pierre became the second fighter to defeat Sherk and the first to finish him.
At UFC 58, St-Pierre defeated former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn to become the number-one contender for the UFC welterweight title. St-Pierre won the match by split decision and was set for a rematch against then-champion Matt Hughes at UFC 63. St-Pierre was forced to withdraw from the match, however, due to a groin injury and was replaced by the man he defeated in March, B.J. Penn. The UFC announced afterward that St-Pierre would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.
At UFC 65 Pierre got to fight in a rematch for the title. The fight was almost stopped near the end of the first round when St-Pierre sent Hughes to the mat with a superman punch and left hook, but Hughes managed to survive the first round. In the second round, St-Pierre won the fight via technical knockout after a left kick to Hughes' head followed by a barrage of unanswered punches and elbows. After the fight, on January 30, 2007, St-Pierre signed a new six-fight deal with the UFC
now these 2 warriors will fight for the welterweight title march 27th 2010 only on payperview, dont miss it! Check your local listings!
Thanks adam
