UFC 99 Heats Up With War of Words Between Dan Hardy, Marcus Davis

The June 13 UFC 99 fight between Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy was already expected to be a grudge match, with Hardy talking trash about Davis on various Internet MMA forums, and Davis responding by writing at UFC.com that he hates Hardy. But that grudge match got even more heated Tuesday on a conference call to promote UFC 99, with Davis and Hardy insulting each other over the phone while the media listened.

It started with Hardy claiming that he hadn't posted all the negative things about Davis that had been attributed to him, and Davis responding to that by saying, "You're a liar." And it devolved from there.

Davis confronted Hardy about something negative that he had seen about himself online.

"I saw what you wrote," Davis said to Hardy. "That was your friggin' picture that was by it and you're the one who put it on there."

Hardy then asked Davis why he would feel the need to write something nasty about him online, adding, "Do you think I'm scared of you? Is that what you think? Really?" That led to this exchange:

Davis: "I don't care if you fear me or you don't fear me."

Hardy: "I'll look you in the eyes on June 12th at the weigh-in, and I'll tell you I'm not afraid of you, and on June 13th, I'll show you I'm not afraid of you."

Davis: "We'll see."

Hardy: "Yeah, we will see. I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you're ready, because I'm ready as hell."

Fighters sometimes manufacture animosity for each other to drum up interests in their fights, but I don't think Davis and Hardy were acting. They genuinely despise each other.

Listen below: