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Mailbag: Hardy's debut; more on Gina

Yahoo Sports

It's going to be no big deal for Dan Hardy to be inside a cage fighting on Saturday with Joe Rogan sitting outside of it, talking and making smart-aleck comments. It's what happens all the time when they train together at Eddie Bravo's Legends Gym in Hollywood, Calif.

But unlike those sessions, which happen in front of a few dozen hard-core jiu-jitsu students, the next time Rogan talks when Hardy fights will be in Hardy's first UFC fight ever, against Akihiro Gono in Birmingham, England, at UFC 89 on Spike TV.

Though it may be no big deal for Hardy to see Rogan and Mike Goldberg sitting cage-side as a sellout crowd roars its approval when he makes his entrance to the punk song "England Belongs to Me," it's going to be a big deal on Saturday when the horn sounds and his first UFC fight begins.

But Hardy vows he won't be overwhelmed, even though numerous veterans, from Wanderlei Silva to Dan Henderson to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, have said the UFC jitters have gotten the best of them in their first bouts.

"My whole career, I've always performed the best when I've been under the most pressure," Hardy said. "This will push me to be at my best. I've had 18 weeks to handle (the pressure)."

Hardy spent time training in Los Angeles at Bravo's Gym and in Las Vegas at Xtreme Couture before returning to the U.K. to finalize his workout. He said training in the U.S. allowed him to measure his game against known commodities and realize that he's good enough now to compete at the highest level of the sport.

Many of the fans, though, doubt he'll be able to get past Gono, and Hardy freely admits he's going into the fight with a chip on his shoulder.

"I like to read the forums to see what people are saying about me, and nobody seems to think I have much of a chance," Hardy said. "Quite honestly, that's how I prefer it. The pressure is off. If I win, I've shocked the world. I'm going to go out and take risks and throw some hard shots and try to give the people their money's worth in that one fight. This is going to be the fight they're going to be talking about."

Now, let's get on to the mixed martial arts mailbag, where you get the chance to comment on the MMA world and ask questions about the important topics of the day. My answers, as always, are in italics.

DON'T PICK ON GINA

I just wanted to drop you a comment on your article about Gina Carano. Honestly I always love your articles and believe you are always on point when it comes to the MMA game. However, I just don't agree that you should single out Gina on this weight-cutting issue. Frankly, she doesn't do anything more then most of the male fighters do. Don't get me wrong; I agree with the message that no fighter should cut that much weight. But write the article about fighters in general cutting weight. Look at what Jason Guida was doing to himself trying to make weight on "The Ultimate Fighter." There was no way that he should have even been allowed to attempt that. The athletic commission or someone from the show should have stepped in way before they did.

The list of fighters putting themselves in this sort of danger goes on and on. To say that Gina is a special case or to single her out further alienates female fighters from the mainstream. Whether it was meant to or not, the article comes off as needing to save the poor female fighter from herself and her obsession to make an unrealistic weight. Again, I'm not disagreeing with the basis of your argument, I just feel that you shouldn't just single out the female fighter. Perhaps she needed to be mentioned, but why not talk about her as well as the mass of male fighters who do the exact same thing and endanger their lives as well. All I'm saying if you're going to write an article of this nature, call out the men in MMA who do it too. Thanks so much for your time.

Ashley P.

Thanks, Ashley. I singled out Gina because of how frequently she has trouble making weight. If this had been a one-time thing, I wouldn't have mentioned it. But it's a repeated thing, and given her status, it's a big issue. Gina is a star in this industry. She's one of the handful of the biggest stars in the game, male or female. And that brings me to something else that was bothering me. She made $25,000 for her fight on the Elite XC show on Oct. 4, a ridiculously low figure for what she meant to the show. Carano was paid less than Kimbo Slice ($500,000), Andrei Arlovski ($500,000), Roy Nelson ($80,000), Seth Petruzelli ($50,000), Jake Shields ($50,000), Murilo Rua ($35,000) and Benji Radach ($30,000). There are unconfirmed reports that Arlovski received a $1 million bonus that raised his overall compensation for the fight to $1.5 million. Nobody other than Slice did more for the show than Carano, and Slice certainly wasn't worth 20 times to the promotion what Carano was. The television ratings shot up dramatically when her fight came on and went down in big numbers when it went off. No matter how long her contract is, Elite XC should rip it up and give her a new one that pays her what she's worth.

CHANGE WEIGH-IN RULES

You are correct that losing drastic water weight will affect one's performance. However, weigh-ins at MMA fights are held the day before the competition, and many (not all) potential adverse effects are eliminated by the time of competition. If one wants to eliminate drastic weight loss and convince athletes to compete at an ideal weight class, the time between weigh-ins and competition needs to be reduced. One could use the NCAA wrestling's regulations of one hour prior to competing. In 1997 when the NCAA changed its weigh-in rules to 24 hours prior to competition (from five hours), three athletes lost their lives trying to make weight. After some reflection on the weigh-in rules, the NCAA changed to its current time limit.

Tony Armas
Bremen, Ga.

You're correct, Tony, in that there are no long-term effects of losing dramatic amounts of water weight so long as the fighter rehydrates correctly. I spoke at length with Dr. Tim Trainor about this, and he said it's crucial that fighters rehydrate using electrolytes and not simply water. As for the timing of the weigh-ins, there is a great divide now about when they should be. Promoters love them the day before because it gives them another "event" that can help promote the card and sell tickets and merchandise. Until the medical community comes up with a definitive statement on the issue, I don't see this changing.

TOO HARSH ON KIMBO

Why is everybody so harsh toward Kimbo Slice when all he has done is brought a ton of fans to the sport, and why can't anyone see the potential he has? All he is missing is a ground game and the patience to feel out his opponents. Also, with the rumors of Anderson Silva considering retirement, is it safe to say that the UFC's middleweight division is virtually defunct due to the lack of the world-class talent that the other weight divisions have in surplus? Rich Franklin has moved to light heavyweight and without Silva, there is no star talent in sight for the middleweight division. Is Dana White going to fix this?

Brandon Hinkle
Indianapolis

Well, Brandon, first I'll disagree with part of your assessment of Kimbo. Yes, as I wrote in my mailbag last week, he's been great for MMA. But he can not fight. He has no ground game. He has no standup. Think about this: If he had a great standup game, as you suggest, would he have been knocked out in 14 seconds by a light heavyweight to whom he had outweighed by more than 30 pounds? As far as the UFC middleweights go, a. Anderson Silva is not retiring and b. the division is far better than you suggest. Other than Silva, there is Dan Henderson, Demian Maia, Paolo Filho, Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, Rousimar Palhares, Jason MacDonald, Martin Kampmann and Thales Leites, among others. I think the division is good and getting better. Plus, if Silva were to retire, Franklin would quickly return to middleweight, where he would rather fight.

McCARTHY TO REF IN UFC?

With "Big" John McCarthy's split from The Fight Network, what hurdles are in place that would keep him from being a ref in the UFC? I know the relationship has been rocky between the organization and the ref that defined the UFC's early years, but with early stoppages, point deduction controversies and questionable stand-ups, I think the sport can benefit from his steady hand.

Nate

If John decides to officiate, I'm sure he'll wind up working somewhere. As far as the UFC goes, it will be up to the various state athletic commissions to appoint him. However, John has created some issues. He created conflict-of-interest possibilities with some very pointed and negative comments about the UFC while he was a TV analyst. Also, he has numerous fighters who work out at his Southern California gym; he could never work any of those fighters' bouts. And a little birdie tells me Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer, one of the sport's most influential regulators, is none too pleased with McCarthy these days for criticisms McCarthy delivered of him. It's not to say that it's impossible, but he's got a long road ahead of him.