Former UFC welterweight No.1 contender Dan Hardy may still only be 30 years of age, but somewhat surprisingly he recently revealed that he’s already planning his retirement.
Speaking the media prior to UFC 156, Hardy indicated that he doesn’t have a specific date in mind to hang up his gloves, but he does have a rough idea of how many fights he has left.
“If I’m honest, my goal would be to have three wins this year then two next year and the first one of the two being a title fight and the second one being a defence,” Hardy said.
After that Hardy would aim to ride into the sunset and has aspirations to gain a Doctorate in Philosophy, travel the world and write, though he admits he’d probably also still be involved with the sport in one way or another.
The pinnacle of Hardy’s career so far has been a title fight with GSP back in 2009, but he struggled after being comprehensively beaten in that bout, slumping to a further three losses in 2010 and 2011 which left him facing being cut from the promotion.
He says that during this time he started to hatch his plans for the future, but a revival in his fortunes in 2012 which saw him produce wins over Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah appears to have refocused him for now.
Next up is a fight with another fighter who’s experiencing a second wind in his career, Matt Brown at ‘UFC On FOX 7’ in April.
