There are a multitude of fighters in the UFC but there are so many who are viewed as truly great. However, there is a dividing line event among those those lucky enough to be considered great; the greatest of the great are considered nigh unbeatable.Ho…
There are a multitude of fighters in the UFC but there are so many who are viewed as truly great. However, there is a dividing line event among those those lucky enough to be considered great; the greatest of the great are considered nigh unbeatable.
However, MMA history has demonstrated that even the fiercest of fighters can be beat by the right person; every fighter has an Achilles’ heel, after all.
Of the best fighters in each weight class in the UFC, there is at least one competitor who stands a pretty decent shot of victory. Who are these fighters and who are the fighters who could most likely beat them? Read and find out!
Coming off his first loss in fifteen fights to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129, Jake Shields will headline the main card at UFC Fight Night 25 against welterweight contender Jake Ellenberger on September 17.The bout provides some intrigue to the event, ho…
Coming off his first loss in fifteen fights to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129, Jake Shields will headline the main card at UFC Fight Night 25 against welterweight contender Jake Ellenberger on September 17.
The bout provides some intrigue to the event, however Ellenberger was not the first challenger who Shields would expected to face.
“I fight whoever they tell me, but when they asked me (to fight) Ellenberger, my first reaction was I want to fight someone like B.J. or Fitch,” Shields told MMAWeekly Radio.
Considering Shields status in the welterweight division, it’d be hard to not slot the former Strikeforce Middleweight champion in a bout against a top contender. While holding victories over Carlos Condit, Dan Henderson and Yushin Okami, it be even harder to sell a Shields fight without a top contender.
However, Shields put the company before himself and decided to accept the bout.
“I’m willing to fight whoever they want. I’m not one to say no, especially if it’s a main event. So I said, ‘sure, I’ll do it.’ But I was hoping to fight Fitch on the San Jose card,” he said.
Ideally, however, it won’t hurt Shields to be put in the main event for a second consecutive fight. It certainly will build his image and help propel him back into welterweight contention. But first, he will have to get past Ellenberger, an opponent who he admittedly knows nothing about, but understands he will be a durable challenge.
“He looks like a tough wrestler with pretty good boxing,” he explained. “So, he’s just a basic tough guy, you know. Definitely not taking him lightly,” Shields said of his opponent.
“He’s got a lot of power, so he’s got good knockout power, but I think he’s lacking in his jiu-jitsu, my strength.”
After three consecutive losses in the UFC, it’s more than likely that Dan Hardy is fighting for his job on Saturday night at UFC Live: Hardy vs Lytle. It’s pretty unusual to see a participant in a main event in this kind of situation—just one los…
After three consecutive losses in the UFC, it’s more than likely that Dan Hardy is fighting for his job on Saturday night at UFC Live: Hardy vs Lytle.
It’s pretty unusual to see a participant in a main event in this kind of situation—just one loss away from getting his walking papers.
Dan Hardy entered the UFC on an 8-1 run in various promotions in England and Japan, losing the single fight by disqualification. “The Outlaw” then added wins over Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis, and Mike Swick under the UFC banner, earning himself a title shot with welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. Many clamored that Hardy wasn’t deserving or qualified, but a gutsy performance at UFC 111 won over a lot of those critics.
In his next bout, Hardy took on “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit, who managed to knock him out at 4:27 of the first round. It was the first time in 32 fights that Hardy had been knocked out and the first time in over five years he lost in front of an English crowd.
Hardy’s most recent fight was billed as a slug-fest with Anthony Johnson. Instead, “Rumble” took Hardy to the ground, effectively controlling him but doing very little in the way of attempting to end the fight. Hardy threatened with kimuras nearly every time he was put on his back, but was never able to secure the submission. Johnson was able to expose the same hole in Hardy’s game that GSP was able to—his lack of wrestling.
Just like that, Hardy went from being the No. 1 contender in the welterweight division to a fighter with three consecutive losses fighting for his job.
Much like the Anthony Johnson fight, his bout with Chris Lytle is being billed as a stand-up war with no chance of hitting the ground unless someone gets dropped. Still, it appears that Hardy isn’t taking that for granted, deciding to make the move to Las Vegas to train with world-class grappler and top heavyweight, Roy Nelson.
Hardy is certainly a high-level striker. A fighter can’t spend time with Team Rough House and guys like Paul Daley and Andre Winner without sharpening his striking. However, the move to train with Nelson is a hopeful one. It shows that Hardy isn’t resigning to taking these “slugfest” type of bouts for the rest of his career.
Still, in these kinds of bouts, Hardy tends to do well. His performances against Mike Swick and Marcus Davis show that his combination of technical striking and heavy hands are hard to deal with.
Chris Lytle, on the other hand, may have the edge on the ground, but his striking is significantly less technical. “Lights Out” often head-hunts, throwing wild overhand punches in search of the knockout.
Even if Lytle is the more well-rounded fighter, his willingness to stand and trade in order to put on exciting fights may very well cost him this one. Although Hardy has 33 fights under his belt, he is still just 29 years old and seems very motivated to get back on track and add the necessary tools to move up the welterweight ladder. If Paul Daley’s recent grappling improvements are any indication, Hardy may surprise us.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Hardy mentioned, “I’m really comfortable wherever the fight goes. Obviously, everyone knows what I like to do, and everyone knows what Chris likes to do, as well. So I don’t think there are any surprises there.
“But regardless of wherever the fight goes, I’m ready for it. I want to show people what I can do. I feel this is a turning point in my career. I’ve got to get things back on track, and I’m the right place to do it.”
In all fairness to Hardy, his losses have been against some of the best welterweights in the world. While Lytle is a very game fighter, he is the perfect caliber of opponent for Hardy to get back in the win column.
If a movie was made about a fighter in the UFC, who would be the actor to play that fighter?This was a question that was posed to me, interested me, and I was intrigued to find out.Before embarking on a quest to find the actors that could play the figh…
If a movie was made about a fighter in the UFC, who would be the actor to play that fighter?
This was a question that was posed to me, interested me, and I was intrigued to find out.
Before embarking on a quest to find the actors that could play the fighter in question, I had to set some guidelines and criteria.
One of my criteria was that the actor has to bear some physical resemblance to the fighter. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense if Danny DeVito was cast to play Jose Aldo would it?
Next, I decided that the fighter needed to have an interesting enough life story for it to be made into a movie.
However, the problem with this, is that some of the more intriguing stories of fighters did not have anyone that bore any resemblance to the fighter. If I just picked any actor to portray any fighter, there would be no need for this slideshow.
With these factors and more in mind, I set off to find the actors that would play the fighters if a movie was made about them.
Bear in mind, this is a light hearted piece.
So without further ado, here are the actors I have selected that could potentially portray fighters, if movies were made about them.
UFC on Versus 5 goes down on August 14, and it features a main event matchup between sluggers Chris Lytle and Dan Hardy. Both have lost their previous bouts, but wins and losses don’t make them intriguing. Fans know what they will get when th…
UFC on Versus 5 goes down on August 14, and it features a main event matchup between sluggers Chris Lytle and Dan Hardy. Both have lost their previous bouts, but wins and losses don’t make them intriguing. Fans know what they will get when they enter the cage and that is non-stop fight action.
Lytle has never been finished in a career of more than 50 fights while Hardy has only been knocked out once in more than 30 bouts, which includes a five-round championship bout with UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.
From champions to contenders and up-and-comers, these 10 fighters bring a lot of energy to the cage, and it usually makes for exciting fights.
Filed under: UFCDan Hardy will admit it – he pretty well blew it his last time out, dropping his third straight with a unanimous decision loss to Anthony Johnson.
The Brit said he wanted to put on an exciting fight, but instead didn’t do his part to …
Dan Hardy will admit it – he pretty well blew it his last time out, dropping his third straight with a unanimous decision loss to Anthony Johnson.
The Brit said he wanted to put on an exciting fight, but instead didn’t do his part to deliver, especially for his fans in the U.K. “I had a lot of people, especially over in the U.K. waiting up till early hours of the morning to watch a good fight – and I ended up having a nap for 15 minutes,” Hardy said last week on a media call for UFC on Versus 5, which he headlines Sunday in Milwaukee against Chris Lytle.
Believing he has fallen victim in the past to lay-and-pray wrestlers – including Johnson in March – Hardy is hopeful his fight with Lytle won’t be a carbon copy of the Johnson fight.
“Regardless of where the fight goes, I just don’t want a boring fight,” Hardy (23-9, 1 NC, 4-3 UFC) said. “There are a lot of wrestlers out there that use their wrestling really well in MMA – they use it aggressively, they win fights with it. Jim (Miller) is a great example. I just don’t want a boring fight, and I don’t think Chris has got that in him.”
And for his part, Lytle (30-18-5, 9-10 UFC) said Hardy has nothing to worry about.
“They picked Dan and I to be the main event, and let me tell you something,” Lytle said. “They didn’t pick me and Dan to be there to put on a boring fight. So if you think I’m going to try to sit there and get him on the ground and hold him down for 15 minutes and then dry hump him, that’s not going to happen.”
Hardy may find himself in must-win territory against Lytle, who also is coming off a loss. After starting his UFC career with four straight wins, Hardy was thrust into a welterweight title fight with Georges St-Pierre. His loss last year started a three-fight skid that included Johnson in March and a knockout loss to Carlos Condit last October.
But Hardy says each of those three losses is explainable. A fourth straight, to Lytle on Sunday, might have him really searching for answers.
“Breaking each one of the three fights I lost down, every one of them was forgivable in a way,” Hardy said. “Georges is the champ. He’s one of the best in the world, and that was a fight where I just kind of went and gave it my best. … The Condit fight was just my arrogance got the better of me. I just got caught there. That was my own fault. And the Anthony Johnson one, he’s a big strong wrestler and it was just one of those days that sometimes you just don’t win.”
Hardy said he adjusted his training camp this time around, starting in Las Vegas, then moving to his Team Rough House in England, then returning to Vegas, where he trained with Roy Nelson, Evan Dunham and Gilbert Yvel, among others.
The UFC seldom keeps fighters on its roster with three straight losses, so Hardy is already in short company. A fourth straight setback, regardless of his popularity with the crucial U.K. fanbase, could be devastating.
“I just feel ready,” Hardy said. “I feel that this is a turning point in my career. I’ve got to get things back on track, and I’m in the right place to do it.”
Hardy and Lytle are the main event of UFC on Versus 5, which takes place Sunday at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis. It will be the UFC’s debut in Wisconsin. The four-fight main card, which also includes an important lightweight co-main event between Jim Miller and Ben Henderson, airs live on Versus at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Coming off his first loss in fifteen fights to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 129, Jake Shields will headline the main card at 
Dan Hardy will admit it – he pretty well blew it his last time out, dropping his third straight with a unanimous decision loss to