It appears that old foes make good training partners. In today’s episode of “Training Day: Inside Tristar Gym Live” on Fuel, Georges St. Pierre was shown preparing for his UFC 154 title unification bout with Carlos Condit. And a familiar face to both GSP and Condit was there helping St. Pierre out – Dan Hardy. Firas Zahabi explained the situation:
“He’s a special guest this week to spar with Georges. He fought Condit. When he was fighting Condit, it was neck-and-neck. Yes, he got stopped by Condit, but I think it was one inch away from being the other way around. It was very close. Extremely close fight. And I think he’s a very good look for us to see what it’s going to like when Georges fights Condit.”
Hardy (25-10, 1 NC) lost his bouts with both men – St Pierre took a wide unanimous decision over the British fighter at UFC 111, while Condit knocked him out in his next bout at UFC 120. He most recently defeated Amir Sadollah by decision at UFC on Fuel 5 in September.
Yes, Hardy has been in there with Condit. But so has teammate Rory MacDonald, who said on the show that he hasn’t really been working with GSP for this bout because St. Pierre “doesn’t need anymore people in his ear”. That seems very odd to me, especially considering Rory had a lot more success against Condit than Hardy had and he’s training for a bout himself (with B.J. Penn at UFC on Fox 5). Could we be closer to a GSP vs. MacDonald bout than we thought? That’s a ways off for now, but interesting nonetheless.