Hardy: St. Pierre played it safe to keep his belt
“I wouldn’t change it for the world. Even the result now. I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a…
“I wouldn’t change it for the world. Even the result now. I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason and obviously I’m not ready to be the champion just yet. But there are a lot of positives to gain from it. Obviously one of them is the fans are now a little more aware of me and the fans that were aware of me before now, most of them, have a new respect for what I’m willing to do when I’m in there.”
“I wasn’t beaten mentally or physically. I don’t know, it must be frustrating for the fans and it’s frustrating for me because I know that GSP has the kind of potential to make more of a fight out of it. But he’s very good at wrestling and he chooses to stick with the safe option to keep his belt. I mean you can’t hold it against him. It’s not what I would do in his situation but I’m not in his situation right now, so I can’t really make those calls.”
“It was just a frustrating fight. Obviously it highlighted some shortfalls in my game and some things that I’m going to be able to dedicate myself more to now in the hopes of getting the belt at some point. But I’m in no way discouraged by it. I feel very positive.”
“Normally I’m not too bad at stopping takedowns but obviously Georges is a great wrestler and quite unorthodox as well. . . He shoots with his head to the opposite side and he hooks your front leg with his forearm which is not something I’ve experienced in the past.”
“I’m just a very, very stubborn person. I always have been. . . . That’s all it is really, it’s just stubbornness and the unwillingness to accept the fact that I’ve been beaten. The ambar and the kimura were both close, but not close enough to do the damage, so obviously not close enough to tap. If I can tap, I can still hit you.”
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m miles away from winning the belt. I know I’ve got work to do but I’m confident that it’s within my ability to do it and get the belt. I’m happy with the feedback that I’ve got after the fight but not happy with the result.”