Dan Hardy Responds To Mickey Gall’s Callout
UFC welterweight Mickey Gall had quite an interesting name to call out after his UFC Sacramento win over Sage Northcutt this past Saturday (December 17, 2016), when he proposed a lightweight bout with veteran Dan Hardy.
Hardy has not competed inside the Octagon since his 2012 win over Amir Sadollah after being diagnosed with a heart issue known as Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome. During a joint interview with Ariel Helwani and Gall on The MMA Hour, courtesy of MMA Fighting, Hardy got the opportunity to respond to Gall’s challenge:
“I almost spat my tea out of my mouth when I was watching it,” Hardy said. “It was like four o’clock in the morning when I was watching, and I just wasn’t expecting it. I appreciate the callout. I appreciate the respect that you’ve shown me. But I’ve never fought anybody with less than eight fights, not even in my first pro fight. It’s just, we’re in different phases of our careers.
“I’m not looking at knocking off a future contender that I’m possibly going to commentating for in the future. And at the same time, if I was going to fight, I want to fight a veteran. I want to fight someone who’s had 20, 30 fights, who’s matured in their game and is sure of their fighting style, rather than someone who’s still developing. I like to see the development of these young fighters and I don’t want to interfere with that in any way. I’m 10 years older.”
Despite being denied by Hardy, Gall holds no ill will towards ‘The Outlaw’ and still has a huge amount of respect for the former welterweight title challenger, noting that it would have been an honor to have shared the Octagon with him:
“He has a right to feel that way,” Gall said to Hardy in response. “I respect that too. That’s cool. You’re a legend. It would’ve been an honor to fight you. That’s cool, man. I love you, Dan.”
While he wasn’t at all offended by the 24-year-old Gall calling him out after his win, Hardy says that he’d much rather fight a guy that has ‘matured’ in their fighting style:
“I think he’s realistic,” Hardy said. “He said in the post-fight press conference that it was a bit of a haymaker, a bit of a wild callout, and I appreciate that. It surprised me, but I appreciate that. It was very respectful of him. I don’t think it was done in bad taste in any way. I wasn’t offended by it. But you know, there’s 100 guys on the UFC roster who would be much better opponents for him right now.
“I don’t want to beat up a kid that I’m enjoying watching,” Hardy added. “There’s a lot of older guys out there who have matured in their style, they know their fighting style, they know their capabilities, and there’s a lot of fighters out there that I would be motivated to fight. And Mickey is a kid. I appreciate where he is in his career. He’s had four fights and he’s an exciting prospect for the future. I don’t want to play a part in that, being a burden in his career in any way.”
Hardy didn’t leave Gall empty-handed, however, as he proposed another veteran name for the Gracie jiu-jitsu brown belt to possibly test himself against. Gall stated that the first UFC event he ever attended was Hardy vs. Georges St-Pierre at UFC 111 for the welterweight title, while Hardy’s first event was Thiago Alves vs. Matt Hughes at UFC 85.
Hardy proposed that Gall look at Alves as a possible veteran opponent to test the waters with:
“That’d be a great fight for him,” Hardy said. “That’d be really fun, if he wants to fight a veteran. A guy struggling to make 155. I think we should introduce a 162 weight class. Have those two guys pioneer that. … 160 is five pounds over lightweight and 10 pounds under welterweight, and I think 162, the extra two pounds, it’s a better meeting ground.
“We need more divisions. We’ve got fighters to make the divisions, there’s no doubt about it. The sport is growing. We’re having more shows every year. There are more places in the world that are producing fighters, that want shows. We need more weight classes. Fifteen pounds is a big jump. If you look at boxing, we’re not close to 15-pound jumps. And we’ve got room. A light welterweight weight class at 162 would be great, maybe add a 178 in as well at some point.”
With Gall coming off of a big win over Sage Northcutt and continuing to stay in headlines with his callouts, we could very well be looking at the next big star in the UFC. Who do you think Gall’s next Octagon test should be?
