Dan Hardy Says Moving to Vegas Will Change His Fortunes

It's been almost two years since Dan Hardy won a fight, and after losing his third in a row in March, Hardy decided he was overdue for a change of scenery.

So Hardy, who had been accustomed to splitting training time between his home in Nottingham, England, and Los Angeles, decided that he'd make Las Vegas the home base for his training camp for his Aug. 14 fight with Chris Lytle. Hardy says the results will be easy to see when he steps into the Octagon.

"It's been really good -- it's my best training camp so far," Hardy said. "I've been working every day with Roy Nelson and I have my striking coach with me."

Hardy said he's still loyal to his friends at Team Rough House in England, but that there's no comparison between England and Vegas when it comes to looking for a wide variety of coaches and training partners.

"I've been traveling around to a few different gyms for sparring," Hardy said of his time in Las Vegas. "There's a lot of talent in Vegas. It's given me the opportunity to train with a few different guys and get a few different looks."

After beating Mike Swick in 2009 to earn a welterweight title shot, Hardy has stagnated: In fights with Georges St. Pierre, Carlos Condit and Anthony Johnson, Hardy didn't just lose but he was completely dominated. He said those losses didn't cost him any confidence but did cause him to consider whether he was improving as a fighter.

"It's a continuous process and something I need to work on for the rest of my career," he said. "I'm seeing improvement from myself and I'm hearing from other people that there's been a lot of improvement. ... Sometimes you just need to take yourself out of your comfort zone and I think I slipped into a little bit of a groove in L.A. and England."

Now Hardy says he's confident that training in Las Vegas is going to result in a career-changing win over Lytle.

"I need to get my career back on track," Hardy said. "This is the right place to do it."