It has been seven years since Dan Hardy (25-10) competed in mixed martial arts, and the 35-fight veteran continues to have the itch to return. Hardy has remarked in the past that he is considering coming out of retirement, but those thoughts seemed to quiet down before too long. That is until a recent interview on The MMA Hour, where Hardy confirmed that he is still indeed considering making a comeback:
“I’m always mulling a return,” Hardy confessed. “And I’ll get a few days of training together, and I’ll be dragged off somewhere else in the world to talk about somebody else fighting instead of myself. I did spend a week at American Top Team, though, doing some filming with Amanda Nunes and a few other fighters there.
“Then I’ll come home and I’ll hit the bag for a while, as you saw on my Instagram. I’m moving well. I don’t think I’ll be able to fully retire. There’s no point I’ll be able to take my gloves off and leave them in the Octagon, especially because I want to come and hang the to the wall in my gym as well. I never leave gloves behind.
“Yeah, I would love to fight again. I absolutely would. I’ve got ideas in my head of who I would like to fight and where I would like to fight, but none of that’s relevant right now.”
So if Hardy still has the desire to compete, what is the holdup? What would it take for Hardy to officially make the leap right back into fray?
“What I need to do is get myself into a position where my body’s moving well over a couple of months, and the USADA testing pool will give me that time,” Hardy said. “ I just gotta jump in instead of dipping my toe in the water every now and then when I see Jeff Nowitzki.”
How do you think Dan Hardy would fare against today’s welterweights?
