UFC 111

By Mike Garvie

UFC 111 is this Saturday, and while the main card is stacked with plenty of need-to-watch matchups, most Canadians will be watching the title fight between Quebec fighter Georges St. Pierre (GSP) and Englishman Dan Hardy.

St. Pierre has won his last six fights including three title defences against Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn and most recently Thiago Alves at UFC 100 in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Hardy has won his last seven contests including four since his UFC debut, defeating Akirho Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. Many believe that Hardy has been fast-tracked to the title and as a result, most NAIT students believe that St. Pierre will beat Hardy on Saturday.

“GSP because he’s pretty much the best out there,” said one automotive student at NAIT.

“GSP guaranteed, he has good take-down defence. Dan Hardy doesn’t have the experience he does. And GSP is Canadian,” laughed a carpentry student.

According to one Las Vegas bookkeeper, St. Pierre is a 13-1 favourite to win. The UFC is listening to street accountants: they have Hardy currently training with Serra, who pulled off an upset defeat over the Canadian in his first title defence at UFC 69 in April 2007.

UFC President Dana White has gone on record saying a win over Hardy would pretty much clean out the welterweight division for St. Pierre, who may go back to his wrestling roots and train to compete for Team Canada at the 2012 Olympics.

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