Shaolin torture was the making of me, says Dan Hardy
By Steve Lillis
March 10, 2011
DAN HARDY was a 20-year-old art student when he spent two months being put through mental and physical torture by Shaolin monks.
After 48 hours at a ramshackle castle in Northern China close to the Mongolian desert, he was struggling to walk or raise his arms and surviving on portions of rice.
Dangerous Dan... Hardy is fired up for his meeting with Anthony Johnson in Seattle Dangerous Dan...
Hardy is fired up for his meeting with Anthony Johnson in Seattle His body would be put to the test for 12 hours a day, before collapsing into a deep sleep in a rat-infested room.
"I got hurt, I got injured, I got tired but I always came back for more because my brain told me I could overcome it all," recalled Hardy about that trip in the summer of 2002.
Hardy, 28 will draw on the mental strength he discovered then when he bids to earn a vital win against Anthony Johnson at UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle on March 26.
The punk rock-loving welterweight said: "I was a fan of old school kung fu movies and went to live that life training with a bunch of monks and a few foreign guys.
"It made me as mentally strong as I am today because of what I had to do there.
"I pretty much lived on rice. In the morning you would eat rice with boiled eggs, lunch and evening meals was rice with steamed vegetables.
"It was very basic but what you need to get through a day of training.
"I slept on a metal frame bed with wooden slats, my pillow was a bag of rice, the bedroom window had no glass and there were rats under the bed.
"I was training so hard that the lack of comforts didn't matter. I was so tired I would have slept on a washing line.
"We would rise at 5am and if you didn't the monks would wake you with a stick. We would start every morning running or walking up 460 steps where your legs would give way. You would use hands.
"Straight after that were tai chi and breathing lessons for internal strength and mental focus.
The boundaries I had set and limitations I thought I had, I'd surpassed within a couple of weeks of being there
"Breakfast, followed by stance training and body conditioning. You could sleep for an hour after lunch before weapon and combat training."
"I did quite a bit of sparring in the evening. There were a couple of other British guys there who were keen on boxing so we would beat the hell out of each other."
It was a different to home town Nottingham and studying art at Trent University, but the man hoping to be Britain's first UFC champ wouldn't have it any other way.
He added: "After two days I was struggling to walk, my legs were sore and I couldn't lift my arms up because I was so worn out.
"At that point you can't rely on your physical fitness and conditioning because it is all about applying yourself when you're at your lowest.
"The boundaries I had set and limitations I thought I had, I'd surpassed within a couple weeks of being there.
"If that period hadn't happened in my life I would not be in the UFC. I would be a regular guy working and going out drinking at weekends.
"It was the two most important months of my life up until this point."
Hardy started last year as one of MMA's rising stars. His stock increased after lasting the five-round distance with Georges St Pierre in a title fight last March.
A stunning first-round KO defeat against Carlos Condit at UFC 120 crushed his reputation despite many considering him to be Britain's best MMA fighter.
Beating Johnson may lead to a Condit return and he added: "I had fought the best in GSP to a decision and didn't see what Condit had that could hurt me.
"I would fight Condit at the drop of a hat. If I fought him 10 times I would win nine times.
"The thing that annoys me is that he thinks he is better than me because he has that win. I need to get back to him and let him know that he is not."