Heavyweight fighter Greg Hardy’s time in the UFC has officially come to an end after the UFC opted to release him following the conclusion of his deal with a loss to Sergey Spivak at UFC 272 earlier this month.
“What a run,” Hardy wrote on Instagram. “ya boy is far from done just got some fine tuning to do. Thank you to all my fans and haters. I appreciate you all. Mostly i appreciate my coaches, family, and the @ufc for giving me the opportunity to shine bright.”
The controversial former NFL player’s release doesn’t come as a surprise as his MMA career failed to take off in the way he and the promotion might have hoped during his three-year stint competing in the Octagon.
The signs hadn’t looked particularly promising when he first joined as he picked up only two wins from his first four fights against underwhelming opposition, while a step up in competition against Alexander Volkov led to a convincing decision loss.
Things started to look up in 2020 with back-to-back victories, but by the year’s end he had suffered a TKO loss to Marcin Tybura, and more of the same was to come as in the time since he’d go on to be KO’d by Tai Tuivasa and then TKO’d by Sergey Spivak.
That leaves the 33-year-old Hardy with an overall 4-5 (+1nc) run in the UFC as he now looks to continue his fighting career elsewhere.
