Marcus Davis responds to Dan Hardy, wants UFC 99 fight

After some interesting post-UFC 95 comments in which rising British star Dan Hardy called out Marcus Davis and questioned his Irish heritage and popularity among UK fans, The Irish Hand Grenade has responded in a new report from MMA Junkie:

Some choice quotes from Davis include:

"I went up to (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva and I said, 'Joe, make this fight,'" Davis said. "I want this fight. This kid's running his mouth."

"I had the Q&A at the weigh-in," Davis said. "I was doing the Q&A, and this little guy came up to the mic and said that he was there with Dan Hardy's manager, and that Dan Hardy had called me out and was wondering if I had accepted the challenge.

"I said, 'When did Dan Hardy call me out?' He said, 'He called you out when he first got into the UFC.' I said, 'Well this is the first time I ever heard of it.' He goes, 'Yeah, well he did. His manager's right back there,' and he pointed back to a guy that was waving at me. And I said, 'Yeah, go back and bring him out here and I'll pound his face in to dust.'"

"I'm getting sick and tired of everyone saying I'm a fake Irishman or a fake this and fake that. I never told anybody I was an Irishman. What I am is proud of my heritage, which is Irish, Welsh and Scottish.

"It's OK for Oscar De La Hoya, who wasn't born in Mexico, to embrace his Mexican heritage. Or it's OK for all the African-Americans here in America to embrace their African heritage. But if you're a white guy and you embrace any of your European heritage, you're an idiot."

"I don't want to fight him in London or England. I don't want that because I'm always the freaking bad guy there. I'm always beating these guys that are from that area. And he doesn't want to fight me in the U.S. or Ireland, so let's do it in Germany. If I could choose, that's where I'd want it to happen."

Davis vs. Hardy at UFC 99 could definitely be an explosive fight, but at this point, I think the Irish Hand Grenade is far too experienced for Hardy to handle.  His boxing is far beyond that of Rory Markham's and I think he could easily out-strike Hardy, while his ground game is also very good and Hardy's is unproven.  Furthermore, the UFC is trying to build Hardy as their next UK star, so it doesn't make sense at this point to put him on a German card, and against a very dangerous opponent who will likely defeat him. 

Nonetheless, Marcus Davis was already rumored to be on the UFC 99 card, so whether or not he takes on Hardy, it's likely that we'll still see the Irish Hand Grenade in action in Germany.