St. Pierre on Hardy: "I want to take him out as fast as I can and go home."

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UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will be looking to secure his fourth consecutive title defense when he faces dangerous British striker Dan Hardy at UFC 111 on March 27.

St. Pierre comes into the fight a heavy favorite, but he is not taking his opponent lightly. In fact, St. Pierre wants to defeat Hardy as quickly as he can for a reason that should sound familiar to fans of the classy Canadian champ: respect.

"The longer a fight is, the more you can get hurt," St-Pierre recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio. "I want to take him out as fast as I can and go home."

Even though some questioned Hardy's worthiness of a title shot after his victory over Mike Swick at UFC 105, his forth consecutive UFC win pushed him into top-10 welterweight status, and justified his shot at the title according to St. Pierre.

"He deserves it," St. Pierre stated. "He's undefeated in the UFC, and he's a great challenge for me. He's a top-10 guy, and we haven't fought yet. Most of the contenders at 170-pounds are guys I've already fought. It's a mathematics problem. It's a new problem that I'm going to solve. It's going to make me a better fighter. I'm going to grow from that."

St. Pierre believes in being as well-prepared as possible, and is always anticipating the next big challenge. At this point in his career, he is only looking for big fights.

"I'm the kind of guy that, the reason why I fight mostly three times a year - I don't fight anymore five times a year - is that every time I fight, it's a big fight," St. Pierre explained. "I prefer it like this, because I want to get the big fish. I want to get the best fighter. At the same time, it gives me the opportunity to improve more between fights, because I have more time to train. I become a better version all the time than the guy that I was in my last fight. That's why I like it that way. I always want to fight the best guys, because I want to be the best. By fighting the best guy, you improve more. I don't want to fight too often, but when I fight, I want to fight the best guy. I don't want to fight guys that don't deserve shots. I want to fight guys that are on top of the food chain, and when I fight, I want it to be worth it."