ATT Coach Believes Greg Hardy Can Be UFC Heavyweight Champion
There’s no doubt that Greg Hardy has the athletic gifts to be successful in the UFC.
The ex-NFL defensive lineman has shown crushing knockout power in the early stages of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career. Hardy has been training with the American Top Team (ATT) gym in Florida. Coach Din Thomas recently spoke to BJPenn.com about Hardy’s potential in the sport. Thomas believes Hardy has all the makings of a future UFC heavyweight champion:
“If you give him enough time, I know he can become UFC champion, but the timing has to be right. There’s a lot more to it. There’s so many moving parts with success in MMA. A lot of it is timing, being in the right place at the right time, winning some key fights, and just having some key moments in those fights, it all has to come together for you.
“That’s going to be difficult for Greg cause those things have to align properly and the fact that he is so green in this sport, I know they’re going to try and push it faster which is going to force him to have to learn at an incredibly fast rate. There may be some things he can’t learn fast enough, that’s the reality of it.
“If you give him enough time, he can be UFC champion but if you push him too early, he could struggle. I know the UFC doesn’t have time to wait for Greg to get better. They have a business to run, so we have to do the best we can to make him as prepared as we can have him for the speed they want to push him.”
Hardy is gearing up for his UFC debut tomorrow night (Sat. January 19, 2019) on ESPN+ 1. The show goes down from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hardy will be facing Allen Crowder in the co-main event. However, his venture into the UFC has been met with a ton of push-back and criticism.
Also on the card will be UFC strawweight competitor Rachael Ostovich. Ostovich was recently a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. Hardy also has a well documented history of domestic abuse himself. The decision to have Hardy fight on the same card as Ostovich has received a lot of negative response. However, Ostovich has said several times she has no issue with the decision.
In fact, she recently spoke to Hardy ahead of the event, and revealed what she had to say to the former Carolina Panther.
