Dan Hardy Is Staying in the UFC, but How Can He Prove Himself?

Shortly after Dan Hardy tapped out to Chris Lytle's guillotine choke in the main even of UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle last night, Zuffa LLC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta tweeted the following: "Will not cut @danhardymma I like guys that WAR!!!".

This comes as a surprise to most as the general rule of thumb in the UFC has been three straight losses inside the Octagon and you're out. In Hardy's case, the loss to Lytle would be his fourth straight.

Of course, Hardy earned the $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus along with Lytle and he is a guy who loves to come in and trade punches with the best of them. Hardy's style of fighting is a style the fans enjoy and anyone the fans enjoy watching is someone the UFC is usually willing to let stay around longer than usual.

Add to that the fact the he is fighter from the UK and plays a role in the development of the sport overseas and it is clear to see why the UFC will give him another chance to prove his worth.

The problem now with Hardy is who should the UFC give him next? Which fighter is he going to be able to get that all-important win over? That question is tougher to answer than one might think.

Hardy came into the UFC on fire—he won four straight fights, including a title eliminator bout with former welterweight contender Mike Swick.

Since the win over Swick, it has been a tough run for Hardy who was thoroughly dominated by the welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, then knocked out by Carlos Condit, followed up by another wrestling clinic put on by Anthony Johnson and finally the submission loss to Lytle last night.

Many felt that not knowing enough of the wrestling game was Hardy's undoing and although that was the case in the St-Pierre and Johnson fights, Condit and Lytle are far from being standout wrestlers in the sport and Condit knocked Hardy out standing up.

Of course, Hardy hasn't been fighting the easy fights since losing to St-Pierre. Condit is considered the top contender for the welterweight title next to Nick Diaz and Johnson is a massive welterweight with great wrestling and a lot of potential.

Despite wining a lot of bonuses for his exciting fights, Lytle retires from the UFC as a .500 fighter, which isn't an impressive record and certainly makes one wonder where exactly does Dan Hardy go after a loss to a 37-year-old who is retiring?

If one looks at Hardy's ascension to the top of the UFC welterweight division and the guys he beat to get there, maybe the UFC pushed Hardy a little too quickly instead of giving him more time to develop as a fighter.

Out of his first four fights inside the Octagon, Akhiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick, it is only Swick who remains under UFC contract. The rest have been cut from the organization for poor performances. Despite still fighting in the UFC, Swick hasn't fought in a year-and-a-half and is on a two-fight losing streak of his own.

Were wins over those guys enough to warrant a title shot for Hardy? At a time when the UFC was clamoring for contenders to St-Pierre's belt—probably. In reality though, Hardy could have used a few more fights against mid-tier competition to round out his skill-set a little bit more and develop into more of a complete fighter.

If Hardy wants to stay around in the UFC and if the UFC wants to keep him around, which obviously they do, Hardy is going to need a step down in competition so that he can hopefully win a few fights in a row, gain back his confidence and continue to improve his ground game.

The problem with rebuilding Hardy is that he has the fan base and drawing power to be a main event, so to put him on the undercard against developing fighters would be a waste of the UFC's time.

Hardy has to be matched up against a solid fighter, but one that doesn't pose much of a threat to him stylistically.

The winner of the Paulo Thiago vs. David Mitchell fight would probably be a good matchup for Hardy and, depending on the severity of his knee injury, a rematch with Swick wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I'm all for letting a guy like Hardy redeem himself, he is good at hyping fights, he likes to stand and trade and he never backs down, why not give a guy like that all the chances in the world to get things back on track?

That being said, a fifth straight loss inside the Octagon would most definitely spell the end for Hardy and his back is definitely against the wall in his next fight.

In any case, it will be interesting to see who UFC matchmaker Joe Silva pits the English fighter up against next because the matchup is going to go a long way in determining whether or not Hardy will get back on track again.

Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report, follow @Leon_Horne.