Exclusive Dan Hardy column: 'Word spreads fast in this sport'

MY column for the Post last week, where I called for officials to be stricter on wrestling being used inside the Octagon to stall and ride out the clock without actually fighting, caused a bit of an internet storm.

It just shows what a global village we live in these days when a newspaper column in Nottingham gets picked up all over the world within hours, with Yahoo Sports, AOL, ESPN television and others debating some of the points I made.

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I was just expressing my view, as a fan of the sport as much as a fighter, and I was happy to see a lot of fans out there agreed with most of what I wrote.

Sadly, there were some people who clearly couldn't grasp the points I was making.

The column wasn't about wrestling's place in MMA, it was about using wrestling purely to stall and avoid fighting.

Had I written the column after Kalib Starnes's effort versus Nate Quarry, it could easily have been about avoiding fighting by standing and running. Both are against the 'timidity' rule.

This isn't about my fight with GSP either. He beat me fair and square. I would have liked him to have tried to do more damage but that's only so he would have given me more space to get back up.

Obviously that's not something Georges was looking to help me out with. He controlled me well and worked for submissions and nearly got two if you remember.

One guy who struggled to keep up with the points I made was UFC middleweight and charisma donor Nate Marquardt, who always seems to have something to say about me, for no other reason than I once competed against one of his friends.

Sadly, we can now add 'literacy test' to the types of tests Nate has failed, because he either misread the whole thing or – like writers from AOL and Yahoo did – just read the first paragraph or two and had to stop because reading gives him a headache.

Ultimately, people can agree or disagree with what I wrote, but the facts are on my side.

The Nick Lentz fight at UFC 118, which was the catalyst for my column, was the only UFC Prelim fight to ever lose TV viewers.

That hurt the pay-per-view buy rate, it hurt Andre Winner's career, it hurt lightweight Joe Lauzon – who had an amazing performance immediately after Lentz's effort, which fewer people witnessed because of Lentz – and it hurt the sport as a whole.

No one watching that Lentz fight was entertained, no one turned to their buddy and screamed "Damn! This fight is so awesome! He's holding the hell out of him!"

I should add that the UFC clearly hasn't blamed Andre for the snooze-fest. He has immediately been given another big fight – in November in Germany against Dennis Siver – on a big televised show.

I would never presume to speak for the UFC, but I can't see Lentz getting any more prime time opportunities anytime soon.

You have to seize these chances in your career and I am working very hard on giving an explosive performance against Carlos Condit in London on October 16 at UFC 120.

It is another huge chance for me, and, unlike some, I will fight my heart out.

Getting off this subject, I was back at the Panthers the other night. We've got a new enforcer called Alex Penner who looks like he's going to do a great job for us. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.

'The Penforcer' has had two fights on the ice already – and has won them. He's passed on his number and he's going to train with us at the Rough House. He also does the Chuck Liddell 'X' sign to the crowd after he beats someone up on the ice – he's my kinda guy.

The most exciting thing I've done other than training this week was go to Rob's Records at Hurts Yard, in Nottingham, to buy myself some vinyl records. I've been going there since I was a kid.

In other big news, the UFC has announced the new series of the Ultimate Fighter will be on Sky Sports. I've had a sneak peek at the first episode and there's some great fights on it and Mike Tyson puts in an appearance.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP v Team Koscheck premieres on Sky Sports September 21 at 10pm.