Greg Hardy will look to get back in the win column against veteran heavyweight Aleksei Oleinik in January.
Hardy is in the middle of the worst stretch of his young career, losing two straight via KO/TKO. Both of those losses were against much more experienced fighters in Tai Tuivasa and Marcin Tybura. The 33-year-old was also a former All-Pro NFL player until a domestic violence case got him blacklisted by the league. He then transitioned to MMA full-time in 2016 and signed with the UFC in 2018.
Oleinik is also on his own little skid at this point in his career. The 44-year-old has lost three straight over the past year and a half. However, he does come into this fight with a huge amount of experience compared to Hardy. This fight will be his 77th professional fight to Hardy’s 13th. One does have to think this could be Oleinik’s last fight in the UFC given his age and his performance as of late.
With both fighters currently unranked in the heavyweight division, this fight could determine if one could get a number beside his name after this.
The bout is currently scheduled for January 22 at UFC 270. That event only has one other bout confirmed at this time. That fight is one between middleweight contenders Derek Brunson and Jared Cannonier. The rest of the card should get announced in the coming days and weeks.
This story was first reported by mmajunkie.com.