Evading a troubled past, ex-NFL star Greg Hardy trains for UFC opportunity he may not deserve
Hardy has fought three amateur fights in the cage totaling just 2:22 of action
By
Brandon Wise
•
8 min read
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. -- Many believe former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy doesn't deserve this. The man convicted of assaulting a woman and making threatening remarks in 2014 knows his chances making it are slim.
Hardy, who played in the NFL for five seasons, was still near his prime when he was arrested in 2014 for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend in an incident that left her battered and bruised as depicted in images published by Deadspin. He was placed on the Commissioner's Exempt List and suspended 10 games by the league, a figure later reduced to four. The domestic violence case against him was later dropped and expunged from his record. He played one more season in the league with the Dallas Cowboys in 2015 but was never signed again. One year later, Hardy was indicted for a felony count of cocaine possession.
Yet despite that troubled past, Hardy is looking to make a transformation toward a brighter future.
The 29-year-old has picked up his life and moved to Coconut Creek, where he is now training with one of the best mixed martial arts teams in the country: American Top Team.
Hardy came to ATT looking for a fresh start around people and in a sport far less familiar with his past. His MMA coach, Din Thomas, admitted it was somewhat difficult at first to coach him on a moral level at first, but the gym accepted him.
"A lot of people don't understand that MMA people don't follow other sports. And it's kind of hard for civilians to understand that because they're not fight people," Thomas told CBS Sports. "When you're fight people and you're in the gym, a big weekend is a UFC card, not the Super Bowl. When you talk about Greg Hardy, there's people that don't know who he is. They just see him daily, and it's a big guy in the gym. They don't know who he is or what he's done. It was never an issue like, 'Greg Hardy's here, he's a bad guy.'"
Because of that environment, Thomas notes that Hardy was welcomed just like any other fighter.
"These guys here didn't know who he was and they treated him like anyone else and treated him like he was already a fighter. In the beginning, we had to protect him, not because of his status, but because he wasn't any good. Believe it or not, he wasn't any good."
On his first day of being allowed to wrestle, Hardy met up with former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos, who picked him up and slammed him around 17 times in two and a half minutes, causing the heavyweight to have an asthma attack and vomit repeatedly.
Hardy called that a "learning experience," just one of "a lot of humbling moments" he has experienced recently.
"[There's been] a lot training, a lot of time to work on myself and become a better person, which will help me become a better athlete and a better fighter," he added.
Thomas remembers another of Hardy's learning experiences, one in which he literally got the snot kicked out of him.
"He couldn't do a lot of the wrestling practices because he sucked," Thomas said. "Then, with his first day sparring, again he didn't have any experience putting on gloves and shin pads and sparring with another guy going back and forth. His first day doing that, I remember being like, 'Guys, look, we need to not kill this guy.' And he sparred with a guy named Marco Rogerio, and I remember him just kicking Greg in the body and just -- POW! -- dropping him.
"Greg got right back up. 'I'm good, coach, I'm alright.'"
Thomas instructed Rogerio to "take it easy" from there, and the more experienced fighter promised he would. "I got it. Don't worry, I got it," Thomas recalls Rogerio saying.
"Then -- POW! -- right in the nose," Thomas continued. "[Hardy's] bleeding, he's beat down, but Greg at no point said, 'Alright, I've had enough.' He's never said that. To his credit, he's taken the lickings like everybody else, and because people were out to get him, it was us as coaches trying to protect him, and there's only so much protecting you can do. He's earned his right here."
Hardy has competed in three amateur fights since November 2017, all of which he won all by knockout in the first round. As such, he's totaled just 2:22 of ring time.
Now, he'll get his chance to earn a UFC contract when he takes on Austen Lane as a part of UFC's Tuesday Night Contender Series on June 12.
Hardy credits ATT -- its trainers and fighters -- with getting him to this point. In particular, he believes former Strikeforce champion and current Bellator MMA middleweight Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal has been a tremendous mentor through the entire process.
"That's my guy. He pushes me, he's hard on me, always there to help me and have my back," Hardy said. "He spars with me, kicks my butt. Believe it or not, the first pair of Venom gloves that I got, he gave them to me. The first time I got here, he saw my gloves and he was like, 'Nah, you can't use these.' He got me some gloves, and you know, been on my shoulder the whole time I've been here. [He's been] keeping me away from the bad, making sure I'm doing the right thing."
Lawal could tell that Hardy was serious about getting on the straight and narrow.
"Talking to Hardy, his mind is right, and he openly came to me and said, 'Mo, I've got to make a change, I've gotta give back. I did some bad things in my past. I grew up and came from nothing so now I need to give back to those that were in the same position as me and I need to give back to the women that are going through bad things,'" Lawal said in January.
When it comes to Hardy's style in the Octagon, it's clear that power will be key. However, Hardy believes he will bring a more well-rounded approach to the fight next month.
"I'm gonna put together a style that combines everyone in the gym," Hardy said. "You know, the Andrei Arlovski's, Steve Bruno's, Billy Patton's, I'm just trying to pull from everyone. You can just build such a great model of a fighter from all the knowledge in this gym, and that's what I'm trying to do."
Lawal believes Hardy has the chance to be elite in the Octagon if he stays on his current path.
"If his head is right, he'll be the man to be beat and a top-10 fighter," Lawal said. "I don't know what his chin is like because I don't try to knock you out in sparring, but a heavyweight, a guy that athletic and big and strong … the moment he learns how to relax and think in the cage, I don't think anyone is going to beat him unless it's somebody that has good striking experience or good wrestling experience.
"I've seen him spar with a few guys in UFC. I saw him spar with a guy who is going to make his debut in UFC from Russia. I saw Hardy put his hands on him; I saw Hardy sit him down. Hardy made him quit."
Thomas believes Hardy best compares to current UFC heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou.
"A more athletic version, but a less experienced version. You know, Francis got a good 2-3 years on him, but he's not the athlete Greg is," Thomas said. "I can attest to that. I've never worked out with Francis, but I've worked out with a lot of guys and I've worked out with Greg, and I can't imagine him being anywhere near the athlete Greg is."
There's no question Hardy is giving this his full faith and effort. And for anyone who thinks this is an easy transition, he scoffed at the idea of NFL camps being anything comparable to MMA training.
"Nowhere near, man. This is another level, takes a whole lot of dedication and time and … moxie to do what these guys do."
That does not mean Hardy's past athletic career will not play a role in his potential MMA success. Thomas believes that the athleticism Hardy developed on the gridiron has aided in his transition to the Octagon, more so because he will be fighting at heavyweight.
"Let's say he was a running back and he wanted to fight at middleweight. It wouldn't work. It's only because he's a heavyweight where the speed is so different. At the lighter weights, the game is so fast and you gotta have these techniques everywhere," Thomas said. "At heavyweight, you don't really have to have that. You just gotta be faster than the other guy and have a good punch because all it takes is one shot. If you look at flyweights, it takes them a while to accumulate damage. As a heavyweight, it just takes one shot, and Greg's going to have the advantage over most heavyweights because he's always had that first step on guys. His athleticism from football carries over much better than another person's would."
While Hardy at the dawn of his MMA career, the former NFL lineman already has his eyes set on another former heavyweight champion in Brock Lesnar.
Hardy said it would be an honor for him to step in the Octagon with such an opponent, and his coach believes that might be one of the only options Lesnar has left as he is set to make his return to UFC.
"The only fight that kind of makes sense for Brock Lesnar is Greg Hardy, which is, in my opinion, not a great fight for Greg at the moment," Thomas said with a laugh.
"But maybe in a year or two. Bring it."
