After four straight victories in the UFC's welterweight division, Mike "Quick" Swick was fighting for a title shot against Dan Hardy at UFC 105 in Manchester, England this past November. Unfortunately things didn't work in Swick's favor that night and when it was all said and done, "The Outlaw" had his hand raised at the end of the bout.

Swick will return to the drawing board, February 6 at UFC 109 against top contender Paulo Thiago.

In this exclusive interview, Swick sits down with FiveKnuckles.com's Mitch Ciccarelli to discuss the matchup as well as his desire to rematch Hardy, his internet "beef" with Ben Saunders and other interesting topics.

FiveKnuckles.com: You were seemingly one victory away from earning a title shot against welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre however Dan Hardy stole that title shot away from you with a unanimous decision victory at UFC 105. Now that it's all said and done, do you feel Hardy really deserves the title shot after beating you or do you think he hasn't really earned it yet?

Mike Swick: You know, we both went out there and fought and he won. But I don't think he's put the time in to get a title shot in the UFC and I really want to get a rematch with him. I don't want to make any excuses about the fight, but I'm 100 % confident that I'm the better fighter and I want to prove it with a rematch [against Hardy].

FiveKnuckles.com: Most seemed to pit you as the favorite against Hardy heading into the fight, do you think you underestimated him a little bit?

Mike Swick: I didn't underestimate him and if you look at some of the exchanges, even after I got caught in the second, I mean I won a lot of the exchanges in the second and third round. I was trying to chase him down because he's a counter-fighter kind of like I am, and one of us had to get out of our element because if we both stood there and tried to counter each other we would have just stared at each other so I was the one that kind of hard to push for the fight. I usually don't fight the way I fought in that fight and when I came in he would just time that hook perfectly and I never fully recovered from when he caught me with that left combination in the second round.

He caught me right on my jaw and rocked me pretty good so I mean, it is what it is, but you can look at the exchanges after that and I landed numerous exchanges even after being rocked. He landed the significant blows that caused the most damage and he deserved the win, but it's just one of those fights where it's hard to swallow because I feel like I'm the better fighter and I feel under different circumstances if we fought again I would win nine out of ten times. No discredit to him because I think he's a great guy and a great fighter but it's just a tough one to swallow, you know?

FiveKnuckles.com: Hardy is notorious for his mental warfare tactics did he get in your head a little bit? Or more importantly, did you feel added pressure with it being a fight to earn the title shot?

Mike Swick: There were a lot of factors, but I don't want to get into anything that could...

Make sure to check back with us the day of the event for free, live, round-by-round coverage of UFC 109 right here at FiveKnuckles.com! Join expert analyst Mike Williams as he takes you through the entire fight card blow-by-blow and then keep it right here for all the post-fight news and notes you can handle!