Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy Possible to Headline UFC 110; Silva-Akiyama in Doubt for Event
A welterweight championship bout between title-holder Georges St-Pierre and challenger Dan Hardy may headline UFC 110 on February 21 in Sydney, Australia, UFC President Dana White revealed on Friday.
During a Q&A session before Friday’s UFC 106 weigh-ins, White revealed that the matchup would likely take place in February,which includes UFC 109 on February 6 in Las Vegas as well as UFC 110. Then, in an appearance on MMAjunkie Radio, White said that the fight wouldn’t take place UFC 109, which is scheduled to be headlined by middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belort, leaving UFC 110 as the likely card.
Wanderlei Silva had been expected to make his middleweight debut against Yoshihiro Akiyama in the UFC 110 headliner, but White indicated on Friday that the promotion was “moving things around” and that the bout may not take place on the card.
St-Pierre (19-2) is currently riding a six-fight winning streak that includes title defenses over BJ Penn and Thiago Alves in 2009, but has been sidelined since July due to a groin injury suffered in his unanimous decision win over Alves at UFC 100.
Hardy (23-6) earned a shot at St-Pierre earlier this month with a unanimous decision win over Mike Swick at UFC 105, his seventh-straight win and fourth-straight inside the Octagon.
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Tags: Dan Hardy, Georges St. Pierre, Wanderlei Silva, Yoshihiro Akiyama
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Weird why they’d have GSP vs Hardy in Australia instead of in Canada or UK.. and you get it free which is pretty sweet tho. I thought for sure they would have GSP vs Hardy in the UK because this was the UK’s first chance for a big star/champ.
Last weekend White said it would likely take place in Vegas and with Anderson Silva struggling to recover from elbow surgery I don’t know why they wouldn’t have GSP-Hardy headline 109 and postpone Silva-Belfort a month or two.
Also, 110 is a pay-per-view. Here’s out report:
http://mmafrenzy.com/12232/ufc-110-on-february-21-in-australia-to-air-live-on-pay-per-view/
Ty Kris
I’m a air head cause all I read in that headline yesterday was Air live , I completely missed the PPV after airs live.
Neutral territory?
I too am suprised by this move, and not because they should have this fight in the UK or Canada.
It’s more because Silva and Akiyama are huge stars in the eastern hemisphere and could really draw a good crowd in Austrailia. Also seeing as their is time delay this card will most likely be free in the United States and Canada. You would think that the UFC would not waste the drawing power of GSP on a non-ppv event in North America. This guy is huge over here and has shown time and time again he can bring in the huge PPV numbers. A fight against Hardy wouldn’t bring in the numbers of other possible GSP fights but I think with a decent Co-main they could do big numbers. I guess only time will tell, maybe the UFC sees something in this match-up and time and place I don’t.
Ahh, thank you kris for correcting me on my assumption that this would be a free-to-air type card. This makes sense then, I stand corrected.
As far as I know there will be no time delay. This card will take place mid Sunday afternoon in Australia, I believe starts at 2pm, Sydney time.
That means that it will air LIVE on PPV in North America at the usual 7pm/10pm time slot, Saturday night due to the time difference.
Whoops sorry. Missed the above posted link as well.
about time now i will pay for this ppv, silva is entertaining but but who is akiyama i have seen him fight he is not that good especially for 45 dollars
Akiyama is the real deal.
Trust me, he’s going to make some noise in the UFC…
no offense Harrison but I’m going to vent……..
This isn’t Boxing you aren’t paying “45 dollars” for A fight you are paying for exciting fights from top to bottom , ya know the event known as UFC 106 or UFC 104 or UFC 102 the “weakest cards” of the year that um well delieverd from top to bottom, honestly when someone bought the Pac~Man v Cotto bout thats what yo spent your money on because the “under card” was and always is useless in boxing, you aren’t paying you “45 dollars” for just Wanderlei v Akiyama fight you are paying for the “main card” and perhaps some prelim action……. We all pay you money for the entire event not just one fight, that is one of the many reasons why MMA is sooo great….
Amen, Dane white, my brother… that is a headliner fight worth paying for.
Whatever.
GSP should be fighting in Canada, Vegas, or the UK, ditto Dan Hardy, and not on some card in the hind end of space.
Also, weren’t we told that Wand-Akiyama was down under as a treat for the Japanese fans that were supposed to swarm to Australia in droves to see these guys throwdown?
And THATS why Nate Marquardt was getting saddled in a pointless fight with Chael Sonnen?
The stories coming from Dana conflict so often I tend not to believe any fight is signed for any particular event until I see guys stepping into the cage…
When you are expanding into new territories like Australia and beyond. You aren’t going to give them a little rinky-dink card. You have to go there make a big time impact, UFC will sell out in Montreal and Manchester every time. Giving the Aussies a big name like GSP as well as a sweet co-main will pretty much ensure a sell out and deliver a great show for a new territory. Makes sense to me.
*You gotta go big when you are expanding into new territories like Australia and beyond.*