
They Say You Should Make Your Impact Felt… Greg Hardy Certainly Did, With a Violent KO Win…
Former professional footballer Greg Hardy has become, without a doubt, the biggest name to benefit from a win on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. The controversial NFL star was facing off against another former footballer in Austen Lane and knocked him clean out in the first round.
The Tuesday Night Contender Series will effectively replace The Ultimate Fighter in future seasons. Already we’ve seen the likes of highly touted prospect Sean O’Malley gain enormous momentum after his appearance on the show.
This season is set to be even better than last time around. As well as names like Hardy, the likes of one-armed fighter Nick Newell is set to get a shot at earning themselves a UFC contract, off the bat. Carry on reading to watch the knockout and see Hardy’s post-fight reaction.
First Round
This fight really was one-sided. Lane was like a sacrificial lamb going in against Hardy, and took a massive overhand right, before eating another left hand. He went down and the referee burst in to intervene. It was brutal, violent and bodes well for Hardy’s future in the heavyweight division.
Insanely this was his first professional fight. He’s amassed 3 wins on the amateur circuit before this as he only started fighting in 2017. It’s an incredible rise and just goes to show you that if you’re anyway famous Dana White will throw a contract at you, a la CM Punk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8yNSw_rXw
Controversial
Hardy is a highly controversial figure. He was found guilty of assaulting his then-girlfriend back in 2014 and received an NFL ban and 18 months probation. These were then dropped after she failed to testify against him, but it made him a highly unpopular figure. We’ve already got one of those in the UFC. His name is Colby Covington. Hardy can’t be worse.
“He’s the type of athlete, and he’s the type of guy that, if he does anything wrong, there will be no mercy for him,” Dana White said, post-fight. “I mean, everybody’s going to jump on him. You talk to the people in his camp, they love the guy. Men and women. They think he’s a great guy and a guy who was probably doing drugs, drinking and made a big mistake.”

Development
As Hardy is probably the second least experienced fighter ever to get a UFC contract, White has hinted that he’ll go through a development phase before actually fighting for the company. This makes sense because power will only get you so far. Look at the highest level of the division when Francis Ngannou couldn’t overcome Stipe Miocic’s fighting nous.
“If he can turn around and come back, I would like to have him fight on the last episode of the Contender Series,” said White. “Then I would like to put him on a bunch of ‘Looking For A Fight’ cards, get him some experience and then we’ll decide when we think he’s ready for the UFC.”
The UFC has previous with this sort of contract situation. Cris Cyborg fought under the Invicta banner, despite having a UFC contract, while Mackenzie Dern also took time to build up her professional experience. Meanwhile, other American Football players have succeeded in crossing over to MMA. Look at Brendan Schaub.