Fight Night 24 Results: Anthony Johnson dominates Dan Hardy

a smart fight by rumble but not what he promised, if you say you're gonna stand, stand. he was clearly winning on the feet anyway no need for a takedown every 12.3 seconds

I'm sure if he said he was going to take Hardy down, Hardy would have been more prepared for that. By stating he was going to bang with him, Hardy got all fired up and was totally unprepared for a grappling match and had nothing to counter.

Look like they were going to stand in the 3rd until Hardy went for that takedown, I thought he was just saving energy so he does gas in the standup

To ahhhhhhhhhhh, I hope you say the same thing to GSP.

if he promises to stand, yes, but he hasn't so far.

Good points Corey.

/ Odesa

I don't know if you could really say that Hardy has no Submission skills. Anthony Johnson walked into the cage at about 200 lbs, according to his trainers and Dana. No I'm not kidding. Dan Hardy was discovering he can be easily taken down by and can't submit a Light Heavweight.

As a fighter aren't you supposed to be prepared for takedowns, kicks, subs etc..? Being taken down is part of the sport, isn't it?

I was pumped for a war, however that was not the way it went.

Its interesting that 6 people chose to weak your comment but did not provide a rational reason for doing so.



Dan Hardy had clearly bought into a stand and bang type fight, his deficenies against wrestlers is well documented and the tactic was clearly implimented by a better rounded fighter than Hardy. Johnson nullified the threat of Hardys strikes with wrestling and ground and pound.



I was disappointed, Hardys lack of evolvement is being seriously exploited and it remains to be seen how long the UFC will allow this fighter to continue.



Odesa

Anthony stood with Dan in the first round, thats when Hardy was dropped by the headkicked that he blocked, still sending him to the ground, so Anthony got to see how strong and capable Hardy was on the gorund, turns out it was relativly easy to keep him there. So i mean i know its not the most exciting thing to watch but its the smartest thing to do. Fighters dont think like us, they wont stand and bang just cause thats what they said earlier, Anthony changed his gameplan so that he could get the easy win, good for Rumble just tough nuts for Dan.

Cant believe how lame this fight was, i was pumped for this. but hey he got the job done an thats mma and maturity maybe.

So three in a row for hardy cut perhaps or strikeforce. I think he will get a little slack because one of those was against gsp so he may be on facebook or even the undercard next time?

I'm sure he will be back... And on the main card.

I'd be shocked if he got cut. Probably will be the first fight on a main card, or on a UK card.

Johnson played the vagina game

As much as Hardy keeps saying he wants to give Koscek a "beating", if they ever fought Koscek would easily beat him with wrestling.

and hed prolly not work is TD defense or anymore ground game, cause if a kimura is all he has for a sub off his back thats a problem.

Hardy exposed again. You'd think after the way GSP owned him, he would of trained all wrestling, TDD and TD and maybe some iron grappling.

I agree. Kinda disappointed with how Hardy has not improved after fighting the best WW in GSP. If he dont learn from that his future will not last much longer in UFC as there are too many smart fighters out there now who will exploit weaknesses most times just as Johnson did.

Hardy's takedown defence WAS better last night. He jumped all the way from one side of the ring to the other on one foot at one point, looked like BJ for a second. Johnson has extensive wrestling training and he's the bigger fighter too...

I agree with you there. His TDD was alot better than we've seen in the past. But it hasn't been THAT long since the GSP fight if you think about it. Couture said when they interviewed him on Tony that it takes more than 9 months to learn how to stop the double. So give Hardy a bit of credit and hey, he was TRYING for submissions, its not like he was just laying there waiting to get hit. Give the guy SOME credit guys

He did look like BJ in the fight ur right, Anothony had to work for a couple of TD's, and Hardy kept Ant in full guard for most of the fight, so yes he looked better but he should have trained alot more on those things, seeing as Anthony is the bigger taller stronger fighter. If hed trained more for that then maybe he could have gotten to his feet at some point or at least moved around for better subs.

Hardy's next fight will be set up as a walk through win.



Hardy has already been shown multiple times to be very limited in his skill set BUT he is a fan favorite, especially in the UK where Zuffa needs as much local star power as possible.

I was really looking forward to that fight, but it was basically a snooze fest. The running theme on this thread seems to be universal disdain for Hardy and his lack of improvement; I concur. Its as if he's learned nothing since his loss to GSP. He can't wrestle, he cant stop wrestlers, can't get back up, isn't a threat off of his back...it's all pretty sad. One would have thought, that Hardy would have focused on TDs, TDD, BJJ ...but it seems he hasn't. There was certainly no evidence of any improved wrestling or ground skills, last night. He seems to be the "exact" same guy he was when he fought GSP.



As much as the guy has grown on me - he'd should probably be shipped off to SF and made to / given the opportunity....to work on, improve or develop his wrestling skills. He'd also be well advised to move to America and begin training with serious wrestlers, because he's obviously not getting the proper coaching in England.

Hardy is one of my favourite fighters. But...I wasn't actually shocked with this result. Everyone has stated how weak his wrestling and ground game is and so he is always going to struggle in this division which is dominated by wrestlers (GSP, Fitch, Koscheck, Shields etc.). In my opinion he was fairly lucky to get the title shot initially as he only really fought strikers to get there in Davis and Swick. I like Hardy a lot and want him to suceed as a Brit but he will continue to get beat unless he takes time out to widen his skill set from striking alone, which isn't a failsafe anyway as shown against Condit.

I hope you're just saying that for shock value Bam and that you've seen more that just one of Rumble's fights......

Anthony Johnson needs a new nickname. SMH!