After spending a great deal of time training in the United States with Eddie Bravo, Dan Hardy (Pictures) is confident entering his Cage Warriors welterweight title clash Saturday against Chad Reiner (Pictures).
"It's been nice to come home and do a couple of weeks with my teammates and my coaches," said Hardy, who will be fighting in front of his hometown crowd. "Training has gone really well this last couple of weeks. I had to switch it from a three- to a five-round fight. I've had a couple of weeks of hard conditioning and I feel really good."
For the Nottingham fighter, this bout represents unfinished business. The two welterweight contenders were originally scheduled to meet March 29 on the Cage Warriors U.S. show. However, the fight was cancelled following last-minute legal wrangling with the Florida State Boxing Commission.
"The worst thing was that everything had been done for it," Hardy said. "And I'd already got over the hard bit because I'd spent seven hours in the dressing room and, for me, that's always the hardest bit, waiting for the fight."
Hyped up and with no fight, Hardy was livid.
"I didn't know what to do with myself," he explained. "I'd got my wraps on, got my shorts on, my mouthpiece was in -- I was ready to go. I'd done all the psychological preparation for the fight and I had nothing to do with it."
Already harboring some pent-up aggression for his American foe, Hardy informed Sherdog.com that in his view, the pre-fight posturing from some of Reiner's online supporters has made the fight a very personal affair for him.
"They can message me," he said. "I don't mind that and photoshopping my face onto other photographs. That's all good fun, and it entertains me as well. So I don't mind, but when they start messaging my friends and family, my girlfriend -- that's too far.
"It is very personal now," the Rough House fighter added. "Because not only am I trying to beat Chad Reiner (Pictures), but I want to also upset all his friends and that will make me fight harder. It's not going to go the distance. I really don't think it will make five rounds because I'm going out there to do a lot of damage. And if he lasts 25 minutes with the kind of damage that I'm going to throw at him, then I'll be very surprised."
Another Rough House fighter determined to put on a strong performance Saturday is FX3 lightweight champion Andre Winner (Pictures).
"I feel good, I feel strong, I feel fit," he said. "I'm really up for it. Everything's been great. I'm as sharp as ever. I've been out of the cage for a little while, but other than that, everything's gone well."
Winner will take on talented French fighter Bendy Casimir.
"He's a good fighter," Winner said. "Obviously, I've done my research on him. He's a southpaw. He's a bit shorter than myself. He looks quite strong and stocky. He's a good grappler, quite experienced and has been doing it for a while."
However, the young Leicester fighter remained completely undeterred as he outlined what his opponent could expect come fight time.
"I'm gonna jab him, punch him to death," Winner said with a laugh, clearly not speaking literally. "If I get in the clinch, I'm going to elbow him, knee him to death. And if we go to the ground, I'll either get back to my feet or I'll look for a submission. You don't really see me off my back that much, but I think my ground game is a lot better than people may think."
One fighter who did get to fight on the Cage Warriors U.S. show is judo black belt and vicious kickboxer Jimmy Wallhead. He goes up in weight Saturday to take on late-replacement Tom Haddock (Pictures) in a middleweight matchup.
"He's got a lot of experience," Wallhead said of his opponent. "Most of the Irish lads are tough, durable guys. I expect him to be good in all areas. In 18 fights, he's going to have covered all areas. I'm just going to take the fight as it comes."
Wallhead, an underrated welterweight contender, has dedicated his life to training in recent months since taking on fight preparation as a full-time occupation. He appeared confident a couple of days out from the fight.
"I was training for the Florida fight, come back, had one day off and got straight back into training for this fight," he said. "Today I feel pretty good."
Despite saying that his preparation for his last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Charles Blanchard, had been hampered by a number of factors, Wallhead spoke openly about what was quite a poor performance by his own high standards.
"I didn't throw my hands enough in the first round when I was fresh and that's my own fault, so I want to remedy that," he said. "So I want an aggressive outing against Haddock this Saturday. I want to put it on him and make amends for Florida."
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