Dan Hardy has revealed his UFC 99 secret weapon to Setanta.com... relentless training partner Jimmy Wallhead.
Hardy is just one day away from the biggest fight of his career against Marcus Davis, a man who has never been knocked out – only stopped due to cuts.
Not that Hardy is put off by that statistic.
“I’ll stop him late second. He’ll get back to his corner at the end of the first and realise things aren’t going to go his way,” Hardy told setanta.com.
“He’ll lose heart, try to brawl, and then I’ll start tagging him until I land the shot that puts him to sleep. Everybody gets knocked out.”
Team Rough House fighter Hardy expects to have the superior stand-up game against boxer Davis in Germany, so he anticipates the “Irish Hand Grenade” will look to take the fight horizontal.
It is there that Hardy insists his work with Jimmy Wallhead will come to the fore, insisting his takedown defence has never been better.
“It appears Marcus is back on the weights and I believe he’s working on a gameplan to take me down – which is the smart thing to do,” said Hardy.
“If you look at us both and compare our skills, the best thing for him to do is to take me down.
“But I’ve got Jim Wallhead. I’ve wrestled with hundreds of sparring partners across the world and Jimmy is by far the toughest training partner you could ever want.
“He is the perfect training partner – he’ll always put the pressure on.
“We’ve got that base covered, and I’ve been working a lot of Jiu-Jitsu too and Muay Thai too. So I’ve got all bases covered.”