Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy is one of Britain's leading prospects in the tough world of UFC. He recently became the first Brit to be awarded a shot at a UFC title after defeating Mike Swick by a unanimous decision. AskMen spoke to Dan a few days after his victory and he was already looking ahead to taking on current welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. "As soon as I’ve got a date set I’ll be going straight back to training camp," Dan tells us. "And I’m looking forward to that. Then, after that, it’ll be title defenses, but... I’ve got to get my hands on the belt first!"

Dan attributes the popularity of the sport to its thrilling nature: "It’s just such an exciting sport: It’s growing so fast, you don’t want to be left at the back of the queue, because everyone’s going to be talking about it, and you’ll still be watching Big Brother or X Factor."

Think you have what it takes to be a UFC contender? Follow The Outlaw's step-by-step guide to all things MMA and UFC -- and who knows? It could be you stepping into the Octagon.

Choose the right disciplines

You’re going to favour either striking or grappling: Everybody does and everybody has a favourite discipline, so obviously whichever one you prefer, you have to go for that one. Choose whatever you’re most comfortable with and enjoy the most because that’s what you’re going to be spending the majority of your time doing. If you’re a grappler you’re going to prefer to come up against another grappler as opposed to a striker, but it really depends on what your discipline is.

The Outlaw's tip: You can go to a lot of MMA classes now where they do a combination of everything. That can give you a good taste of the whole sport, and from there you can start specialising in, say, kickboxing or jujitsu, or whatever.

Find the right gym

First, look at the places around your area and find one that’s close to you. You can’t be travelling too far for each training session -- it just makes things a lot more difficult for you to be consistent. Secondly, you have to research the coaches; find out who they are and what experience they have. There are UK forums that you can go on and speak to people on there about different coaches and to get recommendations on the gyms.

The Outlaw's tip: See what fighter the gyms you're looking at are putting out, because if it’s a solid gym, they’re going to have decent fighters out there.

Find the right weight

When you’re first starting out, you’ll be doing amateur tournaments, and that basically determines what category you fall into depending on your natural body weight. As the training goes on, your body will gradually gain muscle wherever it needs it and lose body fat as well. Eventually, everything comes quite naturally with your weight; you just have to try not to force yourself too much. Some people struggle with weight, others don’t.

The Outlaw's tip: You don’t want to spend too much time bulking up, because then you’ll be carrying weight that’s not natural to you. Just make sure your weight is comfortable. It’s all down to a combination of gym work and diet.

Mental preparation

I actually lost my first fight because I was so eager to get in there and get the fight started, that I didn’t pace myself at all and I ran out of gas halfway through the second round. You need pushing in the gym so that you can experience all those uncomfortable situations before you actually get into the fight. The mental conditioning comes down to tolerating the pain and the uncomfortable aching and bruising that you get from training, and from pushing on through it and getting back into the gym.

The Outlaw's tip: Make sure you’re doing conditioning work and make sure you’re fit enough, because no matter how good your technique is, the minute you run out of gas, that’s pretty much when the fight is over. Stay calm and pace yourself.
Stay committed

I do between four and six hours a day of training, as well as all the dieting and travelling to and from training. I also have different recovery sessions with massages and chiropractors and then there’s all the media commitments too.

At a lower level you can just concentrate on training, eating clean and taking fights. I was working up until seven or eight fights ago, so it is possible, you just have to manage your time well and make sure you get all of your training done on time.

The Outlaw's tip: Work hard, but make sure you have all your protective equipment; you don’t want to be picking up injuries that are going to hinder you in a fight. If you are injured or sick, take a bit of time off -- you’re only going to make it worse by training too soon.