Dan Hardy asked if he'd like a Carlos Condit rematch

UFC color commentator and hopefully-not-former fighter Dan Hardy challenged Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight championship at UFC 111 on March 27, 2010. The Outlaw was on a seven-fight win streak heading into the fight, lost a unanimous decision, and then lost the next three, including a Round 1 KO loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 120 in 2010. However, in 2012 Hardy turned his career around with back to back wins over Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah.

Then Hardy was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome; the fighter declined the UFC doctor mandated ablation treatment, as he has never experienced any symptoms. So he has transitioned into a commentary role. His fight career remains in limbo, but he hopes to fight again.

At last Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 16, Hardy interviewed Condit immediately following his decision win over Court McGee. Ahead of this Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 37, Hardy was asked if Saturday’s Condit interview brought back memories, and if, a decade on, he’s interested in a rematch.

Yeah, absolutely I would, of course, replied Hardy, grinning. It’s the only time I’ve ever been stopped with strikes in a fight. As a striker, that was rather embarrassing. I laughed at it at the time, but of course, you look back and I’m like, ‘That was stupid of me!’ I learned so many lessons in that fight.

When you come off a fight against a world champion – and I didn’t do well against GSP, but I got to 25 minutes – and I spent the next four or five months traveling around the U.S. and everyone was going, ‘Ah! A little bit of takedown defense and you’ll be fine!’ So then I’m looking at everybody else in the division, especially Condit as a striker, and I’m thinking, ‘Well, you’re not ‘GSP,’ so you’re not going to take me down. What have you got to offer me?’ And I had complete disregard for his striking power, which was my mistake.

You can watch that fight, I stepped in three times and threw the same left hook. I caught him a little earlier in the fight, and I saw his eyes spin one time and thought, ‘Yeah. I’ve got his number. I’ve got his range now,’ and I got too eager to chase after it. He set me up perfectly. You watch his strikes, he mixes them up really nicely, and he caught me clean on a counter. I still hear about it from my coach – he still pokes fun at me and laughs about it.

Of course, he looked great the other night, and that’s really what I wanted to see from him, because I do genuinely believe he’s up there with the Nick Diaz and Masvidal kind of guys in this division. He’s a lethal individual – he’s ‘The Natural Born Killer.’ He’s a great striker, he’s very unorthodox, he’s back in a place – psychologically as well as physically – where he looks like he can have some good fights. And who would not want payback for the only person who knocked him out? Absolutely!