Greg Hardy is facing his toughest task yet against Alexander Volkov — however, he still expects to come out with the knockout victory.
Volkov was originally supposed to face Junior dos Santos in the main event of UFC Moscow which takes place November 9. However, Dos Santos had to pull out due to injury with Hardy stepping in on over two weeks notice as they will now fight in the co-main event.
It is a considerable step up in competition as “Drago” is not only more experienced, but also boasts 30 professional wins. However, the NFL star is excited nonetheless:
“I’m excited, man,” he told TMZ (via BJ Penn). “There was a lot of things that played into this decision, dude. The big one was just the opportunity.
“It’s the big-time fight, it’s the high-level competition. It’s what any ‘Prince of War’ or future ‘King of War’ could ever hope for.”
Many in the mixed martial arts world believe Hardy is bound to lose this fight and it’s not surprising to see why. However, Hardy feels he can knock him out, especially as Derrick Lewis was able to do it at UFC 229 last year:
“And then second of all, somebody fell down, my teammate [dos Santos] went down, so somebody’s gotta fill in, the next man up’s gotta fill in,” Hardy added. “That’s always been my mentality, gotta hold it down for the team. The UFC always has my back. They took a gamble on me, you know what I mean? They let me in the door. So if they need somebody to fill in, then for sure, I’m about to go knock this dude out.
“And the last one, soft Derrick Lewis knocked this dude out. If ‘pillow hands’ Lewis can do it, for sure I feel like I can go in there and compete and knock this guy out. And he’s a monster, too.”
Lewis is one of the biggest knockout artists in the division, so it looks like Hardy is building up a potential fight with “The Black Beast” by taking a dig at him. If he beats Volkov, that is certainly a fight that could happen.
What do you make of Hardy’s comments?
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