Earlier this month at UFC 272, Greg Hardy (7-5, 1 NC) fought out his current contract with the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization. Hardy’s tenure ended with a TKO loss to Sergey Spivak which was his third straight loss. He was stopped in all three of those fights.
When Greg Hardy first started his MMA career, he looked like he was going to be a problem. The former All-Pro defensive lineman was knocking people out and knocking them out quickly. He had speed and he had a ton of power in his hands.
The UFC was interested from the jump and gave Hardy a developmental contact after he won his first two professional fights on The Contender Series. Hardy made his official UFC debut in 2019 when the promotion had their debut on ESPN+.
He lost that fight by DQ after his his opponent with an illegal knee. However, after that fight, he went 4-1, 1 NC over his next six fights. The one NC would have been a win. However, Hardy’s corner let him use his asthma inhaler in between rounds which is against the rules.
Hardy’s UFC future
After his fourth win inside the octagon, everything started to go down hill for Hardy. That is when this losing streak started. During this stretch, Hardy’s grappling looked bad and his cardio looked even worse. Somehow, it had looked like he regressed during this stretch.
When he was stopped at UFC 272, everyone was wondering what the future held for Hardy. Dana White was interviewed last week ahead of UFC London where he was asked about Hardy. White confirmed that Hardy would not be returning to the UFC, but he left the door open for him down the line.
He told MMA Fighting that he loved working with Greg Hardy while he was with the UFC. White also said that if Hardy can put together a winning streak in some smaller shows that he would welcome him back to the octagon down the line.
It’ll be very interesting to see who signs Hardy now that he’s a free agent. While not being the best fighter in the world, Hardy has some name recognition and I could see one of the other big promotion’s bringing him in to bolster their heavyweight roster.