If there was an overriding theme for UFC 105 Saturday night, it was the coming-out party for British mixed martial arts.
In a country that hasn’t embraced major American sports like football, basketball or baseball, MMA, in two and a half years has become one of the country’s most popular sports, with a fan base that matched crowds in the UFC’s hometown of Las Vegas in their appreciation for the technical points of the sport, and a roster of fighters that continually improves.
The country’s two most popular MMA fighters, Michael Bisping from Manchester and Dan Hardy from Liverpool, had the most impressive performances of their respective careers at the Manchester Evening News Arena, as British fighters had wins in six of eight matches against opponents from other countries.
Hardy (23-6, 1 no contest) scored an upset in winning a unanimous decision over Mike Swick (14-3), of San Jose, Calif., and the well-known American Kickboxing Academy team in a match to determine who will be the next opponent for welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.
Hardy was able to get the better of most of the standing exchanges, and surprised everyone with an improved wrestling game that allowed him to thwart all of Swick’s takedown attempts throughout the three-round fight. Hardy won by scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27. Hardy even took Swick down and roughed him up on the ground, which left Swick bleeding from the side of the head.
UFC president Dana White said it was too soon to know when the St. Pierre-Hardy match would take place, but did mention Las Vegas as a possible location.
Hardy has only been with the company for 13 months, winning a decision over Marcus Davis in his last outing.
“I’m blown away with his performance,” said White of Hardy, noting that he also expected Swick to win. “Mike Swick is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC, and Dan Hardy handled him. Swick only lost once in the UFC, at 185 pounds, to Yushin Okami, and Yushin Okami is also one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC, and Okami only beat him by decision.”
The book on Hardy was that he had strong punching power, like most of the British fighters, but that his wrestling game had lagged behind. That’s a general rule because wrestling barely exists as a sport in the U.K. Swick is a strong all-around fighter who tried to exploit that weakness from the start until finding out it was no longer a weakness.
“I should have knocked him out,” said Hardy. “I’ve got a new stand-up coach and I’m going to start putting people to sleep.”
The match wasn’t as explosive as hoped for early, but Hardy came on strong, particularly in the third round when he rocked Swick several times with punches.
Hardy, 27, was well known as the No. 2 native star on the show, but is still able to walk the streets in a busy city and go largely unrecognized. But in becoming the first U.K. fighter to get a title shot in the UFC, and with the company’s increased exposure on television in the country, that may change.
With the exception of soccer, the national sport, boxing, and native sports like rugby and cricket, MMA is as visible as in the country. And in comparison, the night before UFC 105, in Manchester, Ricky Hatton promoted a boxing show headlined by his brother, which was nationally televised and heavily promoted, and drew less than 1,000 fans, while the UFC event drew a sellout of 16,693 fans. White said he believed that set an all-time record for the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Hardy will go into the title fight as a prohibitive underdog against one of the most dominant fighters in the history of the sport. Staying upright against St. Pierre will be far more difficult, since he’s considered the best takedown artist there is. St. Pierre has beaten one opponent after another by taking them down at will and punishing them on the ground, including opponents with high-level wrestling ability.
In the other bout, Bisping (19-2) finished Denis Kang (32-12-1) after a hard knee at 4:21 of the second round.
Bisping admitted feeling incredible pressure, both in fighting in his home city, but knowing that after being knocked out badly by Dan Henderson in his highest-profile fight on July 11, that a second loss would fuel criticism that his record was a creation of a company needing a U.K. star upon its arrival.
But he survived a first-round knockdown to come on strong in the second round. He took Kang down three times, and on the second, unleashed punches and elbows that left the 2006 Pride Grand Prix finalist with multiple cuts all over his face, and Bisping claimed, a broken will.
“In the second round I could see him break,” said Bisping, who is a relatively well-known sports star in the U.K., the one UFC fighter known by people in the country who aren’t necessarily sports fans. “I knew I was going to finish him then.”
Bisping and Kang’s fight brought the crowd to its feet, as both men picked up a $40,000 bonus for the best fight.
Besides the fighters, the audience has come a long way since UFC 70, two and a half years ago in the same building, when UFC began its U.K. expansion in earnest. The British crowd was no different than a typical Las Vegas crowd that has watched the sport on a regular basis for nearly eight years. The crowd reacted wildly at the slightest position changes on the ground, such as fighters escaping to dominant positions and getting caught back in half guards, which took U.S. crowds several years to fully appreciate.
