So Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy is now the #1 contender for the UFC welterweight championship.  I'm trying to figure out how this is going to work for the UFC instead of against them.  Not that Hardy doesn't deserve the title show, every fighter the UFC has put against him he's beaten.  Its not the who's-who, but the UFC's entire WW roster isn't either.   GSP has effectively cleared much of the top talent out by beating Koshceck, Alves, and Fitch in such convincnig fashion there isn't much need for rematches and no real reason to think any of those fights would go differently.  But the young fighters in the division - Paul Daley, Anthony Johnson, Carlos Condit, Dustin Hazlett, and Mike Peirce - show a bright future for the division but none are nowhere near ready for GSP or any of the top three contenders he's beaten.  When you add to that the fact that the AKA menage a toia in San Jose of Fitch, Koscheck, and Mike Swick won't fight each other; thus denying the divison compelling top-tier non-title match ups to drive more interest in these fighters and in the division.  And finally, more compelling fighters are with other organizations - great fighters like Jake Sheilds, Nick Diaz, Marius Zaromskis, and even Dan Hornbuckle fight outside the UFC.

When you have a division defined by a dominate champion, a huge gap between the top contenders and the young fighters, one camp refusing to fight each other, and even more talented fighters fighitng outside of the company; what you get is Dan Hardy as your #1 contender.  

Not even to disrespect Hardy - beating Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis, and Mike Swick in a row is something to be proud of.  All four are tough veterans, but generally mid-card guys who get top billing on free shows or fight on overseas ppvs.   But it says something when the guy fighitng for the title is ranked #13 by this site's USA Today rankings.  He has six losses in his career, including two to David Baron and one to Forrest Petz.  Now British MMA fighters tend to have to a longer road that Americans mostly because of limited MMA camps across the pond. 

But Hardy is a creation of himself as much as anyone else.  He was just another British fighter last year, but with his mohawk, bandana across the face entrance, and lively mouth Hardy has done as good a job as any fighter ever of creating interest for himself.  He's done it with nobody else's help, raising the stakes and making a name for himself with his mouth and then backing it up in the cage.  With a main event platform to work from, Hardy could make a fight with GSP marketable by his mouth.  GSP is s unassuming and nice, he's needed a dominate personality across from him like Penn or Serra or Hughes to get excited.  

The problem is, a fighter who eeks past Marcus Davis probably can't hang with Georges St-Pierre.  Hardy defines the old adage of "a puncher's chance," and boxing will probably be the only venue he can try and hang with GSP.  GSP has been TKO'd before, but that was as much of a fluke as anything else.  GSP's game of grinding his oppoents into meat with takedown after takedown, topped off with ground n' pound that exhausts opponents leaving them for easy pickings on the feet is a combination nobody can match right now in MMA.  Hardy's career this far has show no sign that he can deal with any of this.  He did look good agaisnt Swick, but Quick did get some shots in there.  Hardy has an iron chin, but GSP's striking is as good as anyone in the welterweight division, and its even stronger because he drains opponents of their will with his takedowns and smothering offense.  To win, Hardy will have to catch Serra's lightining in a bottle, using head movement and boxing early in each round to beat St-Pierre because he won't be able to stop GSP from taking this fight to the ground. 

I like Dan Hardy as a fighter and as an MMA character, and the build-up to this figher will probably be more interesting than the actual fight.  Hardy has already said that he's a "fighter" and GSP is an "athlete" and zings like that will fuel interest and the build up.  But its a sad state of affairs for the UFC welterweight division, headline by perhaps its one true crossover superstar at the peak of his abilities, that Dan Hardy is the number one contender. 

Sadly, this fight won't be close unless Hardy catches him with his sound and fearsome boxing.  But GSP doesn't get caught anymore.