Jessica-Rose Clark Voices Her Displeasure With UFC Signing Greg Hardy
UFC flyweight fighter Jessica-Rose Clark has voiced her opinion about the UFC signing Greg Hardy.
The former NFL star made his pro-MMA debut on Tuesday night (June 12, 2018) on the season 2 premiere of ‘Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contenders Series’ that aired on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, he beat fellow former NFL player Austen Lane in a heavyweight bout.
After the show, it was revealed that the promotion decided to sign Hardy despite his domestic violence history, which has turned into a hot topic.
Clark is a survivor of a brutal domestic violence attack and thus, the reason she is being outspoken about this signing.
For those who may not know, Clark was assaulted by her fiance, MMA fighter Julian Wallace, back in 2016 when Wallace kicked Clark in the head while wearing boots. He also hit her in the face then threw her on the ground and choked her.
This is when the story turns into Clark’s favor as she was able to break the choke knock Wallace out with a head kick. Wallace pleaded guilty to the charges.
Clark spoke out against the Hardy signing on a recent edition of the Phone Booth Fighting podcast.
“I had a spate with domestic violence before I moved out here to Vegas,” Clark explained (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). ”That’s actually why I moved to Vegas. I had my fiance – at the time – arrested on one count of attempted murder and two counts of assault.
“He didn’t get convicted. He got a 15-month suspended sentence, still allowed to leave the country. They gave him his second chance and I’m a firm believer that someone who is capable of going as far as he went with me – and I know he’s been further with other women before I met him – he’s not going to change. He can do all the convincing and all the lying in the world and he can convince you that he’s a really good person, but who he is at his core is someone who’s capable and willing to do stuff like that.
“So I am very against Greg [Hardy] being signed because I don’t believe that people like that change.“
Clark is scheduled to face Jessica Eye in a flyweight bout on the main card of the upcoming UFC Singapore event that goes down on Saturday, June 23, 2018 in Kallang, Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The main card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 a.m. ET while the preliminary card will be broadcasted on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, at 4:30 a.m. ET.
“Athletic ability seems to supersede any negative thing you do in your life,” Clark said. “You see it time and time again, like Kobe Bryant. It happens so often and it blows my mind that that’s where our society is at. Like, ‘Oh, he did all these really terrible things, but he’s an amazing athlete, so f**k it, let’s just let him keep going and let him keep making his millions and let him keep being on TV.’ There’s no punishment.
“What stops him from going and doing it to the next girlfriend? I promise you that wasn’t the first girlfriend that he did that to but he didn’t get punished for that one, either. He didn’t get punished for the first one and he didn’t get punished for that one and now he’s going to be televised on one of the largest broadcasts in the world, for one of the most popular sports in the world. Where the f**k is the punishment? What’s stopping him from doing it to every girl that comes into contact with him?”
