Dan Hardy eyes potential comeback at Madison Square Garden this year

These days, Dan Hardy is known more as a fantastic cage-side commentator than a mixed martial artist. There was a time not all that long ago, however, that “The Outlaw” resided amongst the best welterweights on earth. He even battled Georges St-Pierre for gold, and survived the full 25 minutes with the welterweight great.

Hardy’s prolonged absence from the cage has been caused, in large part, by a rare heart condition. Provided he can be cleared to compete again, however, he’s not opposed to coming back for one last bout. He would just need to find time to commit to his training camp.

“Honestly, I’m just incredibly busy, that’s the truth,” Hardy told MMANytt of a potential comeback. “I’ve not been able to put a consistent month of training together, or what I would consider to be a full month of training. I’m training five days a week, but not a the level where I can see where my body is that so I can test it.”

Before any potential comeback occurs, Hardy would also have to get his weight on track and enter the USADA testing pool.

“I’m a lot closer to my weight than I used to be and I walk around at 82-kilos now,” Hardy said. “I need to do the four month USADA testing pool and the likelihood is I got one more fight so I’m in no  massive rush to get back into that. It’s a very intrusive program which I like as a fan, as an analyst and as a UFC member of the staff I like, but as a fighter I don’t need people knocking on my door at five in the morning. I’ll do it for one fight and when the times right, but for me the focus is getting my new gym setup with Jim Wallhead and my academy. It will be a good home for my camp.”

Provided Hardy can get all the relevant details sorted, he’d actually be interested in fighting inside Madison Square Garden later this year.

“I like Madison Square Garden, there’s a November card coming up and there’s still time to get on that,” Hardy said. “If they came to me with the right fight, the right opponent, things could move in that direction. If not then next year.”

Do you want to see Dan Hardy come back for one more gunfight?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/30/2018.