The war of words between Dan Hardy and Marcus Davis has reached boiling point over the last few weeks and there is no doubt sparks will fly in this fight. Dan Hardy is heading into the fight full of confidence after his devastating knockout win over Rory Markham and he’ll fancy another scalp to move him up the UFC rankings.

In his way is Marcus Davis, with one defeat in fourteen fights, who will look to bring his stand up skill and world class boxing to the table.

Hardy will be going into the fight the underdog. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is the weaker of the two fighters – it’s more a case of everybody knowing how Davis fights and so, people give him the advantage. For Davis, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. The fact that Hardy will have several tapes of Davis and will be able to pinpoint his weaknesses makes it a taught task for the American. Hardy, on the other hand, will head into the fight with several unknown attributes that could cause a surprise. I think Hardy could surprise more than a few people and a win would cement his place as one of the top ten welterweights in the UFC.

It’s a perfect match-up in styles I reckon. I’m certain Davis will want to take the fight to the ground and expose any weakness that the Brit could have with his back on the mat. On the other hand, Hardy will probably want to trade with Davis. That could be a risky game, particularly with the background in boxing that Davis has. I’d expect him to work the jab, and shoot for the takedown. Hardy’s sprawl is relatively good though, so it should be interesting to see how Davis succeeds.

A win for Davis puts him amongst the top ten of the UFC’s welterweight division. I’m amazed the UFC hasn’t thrown the “Irish hand grenade” on to an American card and started hyping him over there. His last six fights have been on UK soil and he’s defeated Brit’s Jess Liaudin, Paul Taylor, Jason Tan and Paul Kelly during that spell. It’s a great record, but until he gets in there with the likes of Koscheck, Kampmann and Fitch then he’s never going to be recognised as a genuine threat to the title. In fact, the only time he did get in there with a top ten guy – Mike Swick – he looked distinctly average. He’ll be hoping for better here.

A great fight in the UFC welterweight division, where both men will be looking for the crucial knockout punch. It should be a cracker.

Martin Smith
martin@ifight365.com