However, he also makes no attempt to hide how good his life still remains."To be honest, every day is a little bit surreal for me," Hardy recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "Living in Vegas and fighting in the UFC and being able to walk through the streets and being recognized, it's very odd. I've got an action figure, and I'm on video games. Every day is surreal."
Hardy splashed onto the UFC scene in October 2008. The brash Brit, with a brightly colored mohawk on full display, ascended quickly to the top of the UFC's welterweight division with wins over Akihiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. Then came his moment: a shot against pound-for-pound great and UFC champion Georges St-Pierre.
Hardy lost after five tough rounds with the champ, but there were positives in the performance. However, Hardy hasn't rebounded as expected and since has dropped outings to Carlos Condit, Anthony Johnson and Chris Lytle.
For a fighter who had never lost more than two consecutive fights in his MMA career, the run has been especially frustrating.
That said, the support of UFC officials – who voiced their support for "The Outlaw" by declining to release him – as well as hundreds of fans via Twitter, have kept Hardy's head in the right place.
"First and foremost, I'm in there to win, and it is difficult, especially being in this situation where I'm on a run of losses at the moment, which is a very, very alien circumstance to me," Hardy said. "I've never been here before. That's very difficult to deal with, and it makes me a lot more philosophical about life and about my situation.
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It's kind of matured me a lot in a way, being in this situation. But the thing that's helping me through is that support I'm getting from the fans and obviously the UFC being very supportive of what I'm doing is always nice."
Immediately after his most recent loss, a "Fight of the Night" result against Chris Lytle at UFC on Versus 5 earlier this month, Hardy said he'd like to spend a little more time in the gym shoring up his game and was in no rush to get back to competition. Sure, the competitive fire inside drives him to face a few top athletes in the UFC's deep welterweight division, but Hardy understands his career might take a different path for the time being.
And that's just fine.
"In my head, I want to fight the people that I want to fight, but logically I should probably fight guys that are going to work me back into the top 10 and back to the title," Hardy said. "Obviously, there are guys I'd like to fight. The fans want to see me fight (Josh) Koscheck. I get probably five tweets a day about me fighting Koscheck. They hope I'm going to fight him soon.
"Obviously, I've said I'd like to get some payback on Condit because I feel like that was a mistake that I made that gave him the win. I'm not happy with that. Then there are guys that I'd like to fight that I just think would be great fights. Obviously, Chris Lytle was on that list, and I got that wish.
"I don't know. I'm just ready to really invest some time in training and try and come back renewed and improved."
The UFC has proven a wild ride for Hardy. Four straight wins quickly brought him to the top of the division, and four straight losses have now left him on the verge of employment. But as Hardy sets up shop in Las Vegas hoping to find the key to winning again, the 29-year-old said he's not losing sight of what a wonderful ride he's on.
"I still see myself as the kid that does tae kwon do just to do competition," Hardy said. "I never really grew up from that point. I think I stopped maturing at that point. Everything else is kind of surreal after that.
"Every day is a very odd experience, but it's exciting. Every day's got something different."
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