Dan Hardy, the CageWarriors Welterweight Champion may have outlined his desire to slow down from the frantic pace which saw him enter the cage on nine separate occasions last year, but ironically the Nottingham native is now more in demand than ever.
Hardy is yet to fight in 2006 and will do so for the first time on Saturday in a grudge re-match with Diego Gonzales at CageWarriors ‘Strike Force 5’ at the Skydome Arena in Coventry.
However, the always busy Roughouse Gym representative already has another two fights lined-up against Forrest Petz for the American based Fightfest promotion in April and Arni Isaakson at the next CageWarriors ‘Strike Force’ show in May.
Hardy is delighted at having the first quarter of his year mapped out well ahead of schedule, but outlined that, intelligently, he is only focusing on one opponent at a time.
He said: “All I am concentrating on is dealing with my timetable fight by fight and while it is nice to have bouts organised in advance, you have to deal with them logically because one fight then impacts on the next.
“I pushed myself so much and last year I had nine fights in addition to training in America for two months.
“I was trying to fit too much in with the time that I had and this year I am planning on slowing down quite a bit, but my main goal for last year was to get established in the UK and make sure everyone knew who I was, which I think I managed to do pretty well.
“I am now looking at the European scene and I wasn’t planning in fighting in America but it is too good an opportunity to turn down.
“Finally I am hopefully going to go to Japan”.
First on the agenda for Hardy is a showdown with Gonzales after a controversial first bout at CageWarriors ‘Strike Force 3’, which was ruled a no-contest after an appeal from the British combatant, centred on the Swede landing several illegal blows during the match.
Gonzales ended the contest with a rear-naked-choke early in round two, but only after utilising unlawful strikes and a contentious cheap shot when the two fighters went to touch gloves at the start of the first round.
After an extensive investigation following the event from the CageWarriors management, the result was voided and Hardy is now seeking retribution, promising to make Gonzales feel pain for his dirty tactics in their first meeting.
He said: “I am really going to hurt him so badly because it is a revenge fight, so I need to punish him for what he did and it is going to be horrible – very nasty indeed.
“I should never have fought Diego the first time because I was only two weeks off my contest with Sami Berik which went 15 minutes and I was already over-trained for that bout.
“I really wasn’t myself and he was very lucky to catch me, but it won’t happen again”.
Following the bout with Gonzales, Hardy will then switch his attention across the Atlantic to Canton, Ohio for a fight with King Of The Cage veteran Petz on April 14.
The match is for the newly created Fightfest 170lbs Championship and Hardy is ecstatic to be fighting for another belt, insisting his main goal for the rest of the year is to win as many titles as possible and adorn himself in gold.
But ‘The Outlaw’ admitted he will be under pressure not to lose his CageWarriors Championship on foreign soil.
“It is for another title so that is all I am interested in just now – collecting belts, said an enthusiastic Hardy.
“I am always going to feel pressure defending the belt because I don’t want to lose it wherever I am but obviously going away from home and not having the support that I usually get will be difficult because outside of my cornermen everyone will be wanting me to get beat.
“That is just going to make it all the sweeter when I win the belt though and I have to take the risk because if I don’t then I am never going to get anywhere”.
Finally, Hardy will face Isaksson who emerged victorious from the eight man ‘Enter The Wolfsair’ Welterweight Tournament on March 5 at the Olympia in Liverpool.
The eagerly anticipated contest will take place at CageWarriors ‘Strike Force 6: UK vs. Germany’ at the Skydome Arena in Coventry and Hardy paid tribute both to his opponent and the tournament set up, which he believes will allow him to progress quicker because it reduces the amount of challengers laying claim to a title shot.
Hardy said: “Arni did the business at the Wolfsair tournament.
“He looked good and from what I can see he is not fantastic at anything although he is really well rounded.
“I think that gave him the advantage in the tournament because he can switch from grappling to striking really fast and I think that confused a lot of people.
“The nice thing about the tournament is that there are eight guys all fighting it off to face me and once I beat the person who won it then I can look past everyone else and move forward a bit quicker”.
Ever desperate to advance Hardy is once again looking to push the pace, although he is insistent he will now do so in a far more controlled manner. Hardy’s first test will be against Diego Gonzales in what is promising to be an action packed bout and should Nottingham fighter emerge victorious 2006 could very well be the year of ‘The Outlaw’.
