Back in late March, not long after a lopsided loss to Anthony Johnson, Dan Hardy was looking for an opponent that would offer up an exciting fight. He called out one Chris Lytle, who immediately accepted the challenge. Just over a month later, the UFC got on board and decided to book it for the main card at UFC on Versus 5. The UFC confirmed the fight on Twitter via Hardy’s hometown newspaper, This Is Nottingham:
Nottingham’s Dan Hardy will top the bill at a big UFC show in America. Hardy, nicknamed ‘the Outlaw’, will fight American Chris Lytle at ‘UFC Live’ in Milwaukee on August 14, and will train in Las Vegas in the build-up to it.
He said: “It is exactly the fight I wanted. Chris tries to finish you throughout the fight, and I’m ready for a blaze of glory.
“This is the kind of fight you can define your career around. You can guarantee Chris Lytle will bring it, that he will have an exciting fight.
Hardy has dropped three in a row in the octagon (to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 111, Carlos Condit at UFC 120, and the above-mentioned Johnson at UFC Fight Night 24), while Lytle is looking to rebound from an entertaining but surprising loss to late replacement Brian Ebersole at UFC 127. Before that, he had strung four wins in a row together and was pushing into the upper echelon at 170. This fight could be the UFC swan song for Hardy, and it could define Lytle’s place in the promotion going forward. This card is quickly becoming very good.
About the author
