Hardy: I think I could be ‘the greatest combat sports heavyweight’

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

UFC heavyweight Greg Hardy is seeing big things for himself as he moves forward in his MMA career. It was a little over a year ago when former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy made his professional mixed …

UFC Fight Night Jacare v Hermansson

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

UFC heavyweight Greg Hardy is seeing big things for himself as he moves forward in his MMA career.

It was a little over a year ago when former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy made his professional mixed martial arts debut. The 30-year-old heavyweight began his career at Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, winning all of his fights via first-round stoppage.

The “Prince of War” will once again step inside the Octagon this weekend to fight Juan Adams at UFC on ESPN 4. And since his first UFC win last April, he has held a strong sense of self-belief in terms of his progression as a mixed martial artist.

“I think I could be one of – if not the – greatest fight sports heavyweight of all-time. Not even just MMA, just the greatest combat sports heavyweight,” Hardy said on Monday’s episode of the Ariel Helwani MMA Show (transcript by MMA News). “I’m versatile, you know?”

Hardy isn’t limiting himself to mixed martial arts, as he also plans to venture into boxing sometime in the future.

“Looking into it and got some of the greatest coaches in the world at American Top Team (ATT),” he said. “Just getting the opportunity to move back and forth between different arts. I found a nice spot in boxing. Starting to develop a love for it, a like for it, and a yearning to actually get in there and try it out.

“I think, with the blessing of the Big Man upstairs, that it’s something I would love to look into and starting pretty soon to wet my feet.”

UFC on ESPN 4 takes place on Saturday, July 20th, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. It will be headlined by a welterweight fight between Rafael dos Anjos and Leon Edwards.