The fight between Dan Hardy and Marcus Davis seemed to reach a fever pitch when the two squared off at UFC 99 last year, but the war of words didn't end there.
Prior to the fight, Hardy did everything in his power to rile up the Irishman, and he accomplished his goal. A Photoshop contest amongst fans, and some well placed trash talk, brought Davis to a frenzy before their fight ever happened.
Right after the fight, Hardy admitted that it was all part of a strategy to get into Davis' head and earn a shot at the Maine based fighter. Still even though the fight seemed over, Davis fired back just weeks ago via his Twitter account stating, "I hope Dan Hardy dies of AIDS."
The comment was eventually deleted, but Hardy says that Davis obviously didn't know when enough was enough.
"Some people can't see it for what it is. Obviously with Marcus Davis making a comment like that it obviously proves he can't deal with the situation, and he doesn't get it," Hardy commented recently when appearing on MMAWeekly Radio.
"Apparently the Photoshops that I helped create were completely unacceptable, yet he makes a comment like that (and) it's okay? I don't understand where his logic lies."
Hardy admits that psychological warfare goes a long way, and he's become a master of that particular trade.
"Any time you can use any psychological warfare, it's different for every fighter," Hardy said. "The Marcus Davis fight was a blatant, outright, I'm going to punk him, I'm going to make him look stupid, and you're going to get crazy and lose your mind.
"Mike Swick was a little bit more fun, a little bit more jokey, but when it got to the end of the build up of the fight, he'd been expecting me to say all kinds of stuff that he didn't know really how to deal with it. He didn't know how to prepare himself for what was to come."
Hardy's teammate, Paul Daley, has started a similar campaign for his upcoming UFC 113 fight against Josh Koscheck. Daley encouraged fans to Photoshop a new haircut for Koscheck ahead of their fight, and when Hardy was asked if he would possibly put the best photo on his walkout t-shirt for UFC 113?
"Don’t give him any ideas, you know he will," Hardy responded.
Jose Aldo on Saturday night easily established himself as thee premier featherweight fighter in the world, dismantling former champion Urijah Faber over the course of their five-round battle at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif.
