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By Thomas Gerbasi
After Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim was forced to withdraw from his UFC 105 bout with Dan Hardy in Manchester, England on November 14th, 170-pound contender Mike ‘Quick’ Swick has answered the call to face ‘The Outlaw’ in what promises to be a welterweight war at the MEN Arena.
“I think this is the fight of the night,” said Hardy of the matchup with Swick. “My style will gel very well with Mike’s, we both come from kickboxing backgrounds, we both have very fast strikes, and there’s so much on the line for us both. I want to thank Joe Silva and the UFC for offering me this chance less than a year since my UFC debut. UFC fans haven’t seen the best of me yet; but they will at UFC 105.”
Nottingham’s Hardy, 3-0 in the UFC after wins over Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, and Marcus Davis, has taken the UFC by storm since his first Octagon bout, but he will be pushed to the limit by Swick, a longtime middleweight contender who has matched that success at welterweight with victories over Josh Burkman, Marcus Davis, Jonathan Goulet, and Ben Saunders – the last two coming by impressive knockout. Hardy is ready for the challenge.
“I like Mike, he’s a top bloke,” said Hardy. “We did a PR tour of Germany together earlier in the year and we got on very well. He’s a fun guy, good company and I really respect him for all the charity work he does with the Troops. It was funny, we kept joking that we were hanging out, playing X-Box, watching movies and stuff on this tour bus together in Germany for a week and yet would probably be fighting each other someday. That day is about five weeks away now, and I am sorry, Mike, but I’m still going to deliver one hell of a beating at UFC 105 – the kind of beating which will be very uncomfortable viewing for every other welterweight in the UFC. Mike’s been around for longer than I have in the UFC, but his best win is over Marcus Davis, like with me, but even though he got a unanimous decision I feel I beat Marcus worse than he did.”
Tickets for UFC 105, which is headlined by the light heavyweight bout between Randy Couture and Brandon Vera, as well as Michael Bisping’s return against Denis Kang, and Hardy vs Swick, are on sale now.
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