URDirt on MMA, UFC signs Dan Hardy, Dana White "We where just talking to Arlovski, we want to sign him"

Photography by Mr Will.

The UFC signs Cage Warriors veteran Dan " The Outlaw" Hardy.

In a move to further bolster its roster with Bristish veterans and local favorites the UFC signed long time Cage Warriors fighter Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy to fight in the stacked 170lbs Welterweight division. In a statement on Cagewarriors.com Hardy said the following.

"I feel I've come to the UFC at exactly the right
time," he said. "Since the UFC came back to England last spring, everywhere I've
gone people have asked me when I was going to sign with the UFC and why I wasn't
in the UFC yet. "The plan was always to fight in the UFC when I felt I was 100%
ready. But there were things I felt, as a fighter, I needed to work on before I
made my UFC debut. I probably could have fought in the UFC before now, but I
wanted to work on my skills, my BJJ and my wrestling. I have trained as a
striker since I was six years old, but have really worked very hard on my ground
game over the last four years, including working with Eddie Bravo out in the
States, and I feel I've got one of the most well rounded games of any fighter in
Europe."

Outlaw recently stopped Chad Reiner by TKO and 2 weeks beat Daniel Weichel by TKO. Hardy has a 19-6 record winning 8 out of his last 9, with his only loss coming by DQ after low kicking Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the groin.

"My 2 Cents"

I wont pretend I know alot about Hardy but the UFC is trying so hard to take Europe by storm, why not spend the money on a proven market? Like uuuuuuhhhhmmm that Japan place you know with the Pride name.

Dana White on The Pitbull, "We want to sign him".

"Arlovski? Affliction never heard of them"

Dana White recently said in an interview with Yahoo!Sports.com ( Kevin Iole's Mailbag) that he still has interest in signing Andrei Arlovski, but weither he will or will not he still has no clue on the matter. Earlier this week Ben Rothwell announced on a personal Blog that he would be fighting Arlovski on the July 19th Affliction Banned fight card. Rumor is that Affliction offering Fedor $1.5 Million and Tim Sylvia another $800,000 to fight and another $200,000 to win. So we all know they are not paying the Pit Bull Peanuts. So will Dana pony the dough up for a guy alot of people think should fighting Big Nog for the interim HW Championship or is he going to let him fight else where and take a chance that EliteXC or another organization can sign him?

Ben Rothwell on Sherdog.com's forums

Just remember back at the post
"lets get the rumor right its not about who" yawell i was trying to clear up
that i was not fighting AA in Sept on another org.as the original rumor stated.
I tried to never say if i was/was not fighting AAbut most all the forum took it
that way, sorry i guess. anyway I'm excited tofight a top10 HW, so thanks for
the support, peace.

Dana White on Arlovski, on Yahoo!sports.com

We were just talking about Arlovski. We want to sign him. It’s our intention to sign him. But I don’t know. We’re, well, I don’t know. We want to. Whether we will or not, I have no idea. We like Andrei and I know the fans like Andrei. I hope we can do something.”

"My 2 Cents"

If Dana White wants Arlovski he should pay him, I have no joy in my heart when Fabricio Werdum (a guy whom AA beat) is getting title talk consideration before a former UFC HW Champion. That and he got it done dirty to him at his last appearence in the UFC, the under card is a slap in the face even if it is a buisness move.