UFC 142: Rumble Johnson vs. Hardy, Mark Hardy on Twitter

With UFC 142 just around the corner, middleweight Anthony Johnson finds himself in a war of words with an unlikely enemy.

Instead of trading verbal jabs with opponent Vitor Belfort, Johnson's newest—and strangest—detractor happens to be Mark Hardy, father of UFC welterweight Dan Hardy.

Mark Hardy recently sparked a feud with Johnson over Twitter when he replied to a tweet by the UFC about their newest addition to the middleweight roster. In the tweet, Johnson claimed that he would "break Vitor," to which Mark Hardy replied, "He lies."

Infuriated by the post, Johnson replied with a tweet of his own, directing his anger at Mark Hardy and not at his son.

@Mark_Hardy4 for some1 who son lost 4 fights in a row u need 2 focus on dan instead of worrying about me. I like dan he's a fighter shit happens no1 is perfect but since you wanna start running ur mouth. Ill get dirty wit u. When was the last time dan won a round since his loss 2 GSP? Once again no disrespect 2 dan. This is directed 2 u cuz u talk 2 fuckin much 4 no reason.

Refusing to stay quiet, Mark Hardy had more to say about Johnson, tweeting good luck to his UFC 142 opponent while cautioning Belfort about Johnson's possibly less than truthful ways.

Mark Hardy then posted, "How's training going?" The tweet was accompanied with an image of a man eating a giant burger, a jab at Johnson's history of missing weight.

Johnson retorted by challenging Mark Hardy to a few rounds in the Octagon, but the feud's antagonist replied by calling Johnson "boring."

After a few more exchanges, the back-and-forth tweeting died down—for now. But as members of the mixed martial arts community know, bad blood is a stain not easily removed.