UFC 120: Breaking Down Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit

Added on Oct 13, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

If you believed the UFC marketing machine before Dan Hardy’s fight with GSP, then you probably thought Hardy was knocking people out all over the planet. The same argument can be made about Carlos Condit. You may think the “Natural Born Killer” has been finishing everyone he has faced since he was brought up from the WEC, but he has only finished one person in 3 fights. That person was Rory Macdonald, and Condit finished it in the last 7 seconds. The score cards showed that he would have lost the fight had it gone to decision. My main point is that their strengths aren’t necessarily what the UFC would have you believe.

I don’t want to make it sound like Dan Hardy doesn’t have rock hard hands, and when he connects on the button, only the fighters with iron jaws stand a real chance of staying conscious. Dan Hardy’s only loss in the UFC is to welterweight champions Georges St. Pierre. GSP used his wrestling to make Hardy look as useless as a turtle on its back, but that doesn’t mean Hardy doesn’t have wrestling skills. Many fighters feel GSP has the wrestling ability to compete in the Olympics, and if its that good(I don’t think it is,) there is only one another person who could probably stalemate his wrestling ability. That person would be former Strikeforce champion, and new UFC fighter, Jake Shields. Hardy has been able to stop most takedowns, and poses tremendous problems when fighters try to take him down in the clinch. Add in the fact he has tight punches, and those are two good reasons why you dont want to fight on the inside with Dan Hardy.

Carlos Condit poses a unique set of problems for Hardy as well. Although he has a loss since he got to the UFC, a split decision with the number one contender Martin Kampman, he hasn’t been finished in a professional bout since 2006. Carlos Condit is a grinder. He also has some exceptional kick boxing which could help him keep his distance from Hardy’s strengths. Now that he is training with Greg Jackson, you can assume that his kick boxing will be a large part of the master plan Jackson comes up with for him. Expect a decent amount of kicks, and knees from Condit in this fight.

This fight will depend on who performs better in the clinch. I am not sure Condit wants to take this fight to the floor unless he already has Hardy hurt. Hardy’s Jiu-Jitsu is becoming more and more offensive. He didn’t submit GSP, but the only guy to do that was UFC Hall OF Famer Matt Hughes, in 2004. I expect Dan Hardy to control the pace of the fight, and I expect him to prove impossible to bring down. Carlos Condit just doesn’t have the shot from the outside that it would require to bring Dan Hardy to the floor. Dan Hardy will use his abilities in the clinch to rough up condit every chance he gets it, and I bet Condit ends up on his back when he doesn’t have an answer for the control Dan maintains. I expect Dan to bring to carry all three rounds, and I see it ending in his favor on the cards.