A previously undiscovered heart condition is the reason Dan Hardy wasn’t cleared to fight Matt Brown at UFC On FOX 7 next month his manager has revealed.
Hardy himself had originally announced his withdrawal from the fight on Twitter, but had been trying to make light of the situation.
“Sorry guys, I couldn’t be more disappointed. Turns out I have a wolf heart and the California commission won’t clear me to fight,” Hardy wrote.
His manager Wad Alameddine has since clarified that it was indead a heart issue that’s behind the cancelation of the fight.
“On Wednesday his EKG results came back showing an irregularity which has been diagnosed as Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome, which incidentally my wife also suffers from,” Adameddine told addictedmma.com. “However unlike my wife who has symptoms of the syndrome (including heart palpitations and tachycardia), Dan has never shown any symptoms of the syndrome and therefore it has come as a surprise to us all as this is something you are born with, rather than develop.
Since this news, Dan has been back to hospital and had several tests run on him with a cardiologist, which included an Ultrasound as well as a high-level stress test to study his heart and how it responds to exercise. To say Dan has a very strong and healthy heart would be an understatement! The tests he did not only showed he has a phenomenal resting heart rate of 42bpm, but he also broke the record for the stress test he did which was held by a marathon runner for over a year.
Sadly the commission will not clear him for the fight with Brown so the UFC were forced to draft in Jordan Mein as a replacement for Dan.”
It’s not clear yet how this effects Hardy’s future in the sport, but Alamedinne seems confident that his fighter is fit to compete and they are currently speaking with the UFC about how to proceed from here.
Coincidentally, Hardy recently brought up the subject of retirement, indicating that it is something that’s been on his mind despite only being 30 years of age. However, he had stated that he wanted to make one more run at the welterweight title before doing so.
