Welterviktaren Dan Hardy (25-10) har en match inbokad inom kort, mot Matt Brown (16-11) på UFC on FOX 7, men har redan börjat fundera på att avsluta sin karriär. Till MMAjunkie berättar Hardy att han börjat tvivla på sin sysselsättning.
”I’m ready for a new challenge, I’ll be honest. There are a lot of things about this sport that I love, and a lot of things about this sport that I don’t like at all. Martial arts for me has always been a tool to understand myself a little more, and it’s getting to the stage where it’s run its course now. The structure the sport has taken on is taking away from that for me, and I think I’m best served to be somewhere else in the future.”
Den brittiske fightern gav inga detaljer om vad han ville komma bort från, men spekulerade att pensionen kunde bli lagom nästa år. Hardy menade även att hans pensionsplaner inte påverkar situationen för stunden, och han har inte givit upp hoppet om att erövra UFC-bältet innan han lämnar oktagonen.
”As of right now, I just need to embrace that instinctual inner-reptile and have a run at the belt again. I’m excited about this year because my potential is sky-high, and it’s completely open for me to do whatever I like with it. I’m very determined to make this a big year for me and step away from the top of the sport and do something else for a while.”
Bland Hardys framtidsplaner fanns bland annat ambitionen att doktorera i filosofi och backpacka genom Sydamerika. Hardy räknade dock med att fortsätta vara aktiv inom MMA, om än på en lägre nivå.
”I’ll never be away from the gym for too long. I couldn’t walk away from it entirely. I just think there’s a time to review where you’re at and see what you want to do with the rest of your life, and I think in that two years when I was losing, I had a lot of time to do that, and I made plans for the future that I was excited about. Now, I’ve got a second chance at my UFC career, and I’m going to run at it and see what happens after it.”
