Well not so much as the title would have you believe, but former UFC welterweight contender Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy (23-9, 1NC) does plan on training with the UFC heavyweight, and the last IFL heavyweight champ, Roy “Big Country” Nelson.
Hardy, who has lost the last three of his UFC matches to Georges St-Pierre, Carlos Condit, and Anthony Johnson wants to improve his wrestling, especially after being manhandled by GSP and “Rumble” in his last fight.
In an interview with ESPN, the Brit revealed that he was moving his training camp to the States and that he’d be following Nelson around for the next few months, learning from the heavyweight as he trained others around the country.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work with Roy. We talk back and forth most days and he has a lot of information and I feel like I need him to teach me, so I’m going to go out there and spend a lot of time with him. He travels around different gyms working with different guys, so I’m just going to follow his lead when I’m over here.”
“I had a good talk with Roy about it. My opinion of it is, I can’t finish a fight with wrestling. So my focus has been striking and submissions. Roy’s take on it is that you need wrestling to control the fight wherever it goes. And I have to agree with him; he’s convinced me…If I give him a little bit of my time, I can get a lot out. He’ll be cornering me in my next fight, and I’ll likely be cornering him for his, too.”