UFC 120 Preview: Dan Hardy and Carlos Condit Welterweight Bout

Welterweights Dan Hardy and Carlos Condit meet in the octagon at UFC 120 on Saturday, October 16 in London with a lot of pre-fight trash talk going back and forth between the fighters.

Both of these fighters push the pace which makes this a great fight of the night candidate. Dan Hardy is the UFC 120 odds favorite at -165 with Carlos Condit paying +135.

English fighter Dan Hardy (23-7-0 MMA, 4-1 UFC) is coming off of a decision loss to Georges St. Pierre in a welterweight title match and will be looking to rebuild himself back to challenger status. Hardy is an excellent striker and is always a knockout threat. He is always well prepared for his fights studying his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

Carlos Condit (25-5-0 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is trained in a large number of disciplines, but is not nearly as polished a fighter as Hardy. He can fight very competently standing up or on the mat, but he has not faced a fighter of Hardy’s level. His kickboxing is particularly dangerous and he can quickly turn a fight around when he is down on his back.

He is also a very dangerous submission artist, but he has trouble getting the fight on the ground and often seems content to stand-up against strikers who would be otherwise vulnerable to his ground game.

Discipline will be the key in this fight. Both fighters have excellent cardio and like to push the pace, so don’t be surprised to see this end as the Fight of the Night. The winner will likely be the one who pushes the pace without getting sloppy.

Hardy sounds like he understands this saying, “His [Condit’s] best quality is his persistence. He’s quite tenacious…’Quite’ meaning he’s not as tenacious as me, and that’s where he’s going to fall short, because his tenacity is going to get him in a lot of trouble. ”

Condit wins a lot of fights by exhausting his opponents and then taking advantage. Hardy is in excellent shape, so Condit can’t count on out-working Hardy for the win. If Condit takes this one, it will likely be in a decision since Hardy is not going to be easy to submit or knockout.

Hardy should be able to get a KO. He also has the home-country advantage if it goes to a decision. In past events in England, there have been some inexplicable decisions that favored English fighters.

Be sure to also check out my Bisping-Akiyama Preview on Bleacher Report.