Greg Hardy says UFC San Antonio opponent Juan Adams, who trolled him all over social media to land a fight against the ex-NFL star, “seems like a pretty decent guy.”
San Antonio, TX — Greg Hardy hasn’t had much in the way of interaction with UFC San Antonio opponent Juan Adams ahead of this Saturday’s fight. Maybe that’s for the best.
“I’ve seen him a couple times. Seems like a pretty decent guy I guess,” Hardy told media outlets including Cageside Press on Wednesday, at the event’s open workout session. The San Antonio card is a big one, serving as UFC on ESPN 4.
Pretty decent guy, said Hardy. The feeling is not mutual. Juan Adams has been calling out Hardy for months, and certainly hasn’t been afraid to go after the ex-NFL stars checkered past, including a domestic violence conviction that was later overturned.
However, things at the host hotel have gone smoothly. Zero issues during Fight Week to date. Hardy said there’s been no attempts at intimidation, at least. “I don’t think that’d be smart for anybody to do, so nah.”
For his own part, “I send my messages in my ring, man. I used to send them on the field. When you’re the baddest man on the freakin planet, brother, you don’t need to talk trash. You don’t need to coax people into fighting before the fight. They lock us in a cage.”
All the criticism, the love, the hate, “it’s kind of like being in the NFL. It’s an everyday job. I’m used to it, it comes with the territory. You can’t have half the planet love you and expect the rest to fall in suit. It’s a checks and balances kind of thing. It’s a democracy. It’s their right.”
Fans in the NFL side with their teams. Fans in fighting side with individuals, for any given reason. Hardy looks past all that. “We’re here to break faces. This is not a nice guy sport. And I’m a nice guy, until they lock the cage. When I get in the cage, I’m coming to break your face in every single way possible.”
He’s looking to expand his skill set to do it, noting his kicks have been worked on. No doubt other parts of his game too. “I want to break people down in beautiful, phenomenal ways, and it’s coming soon.”
Hardy will likely never shake his past, and probably deservedly so. But he has come far, he said, since entering into MMA. “A long long long long way. I’m a more calm, more happy, more deadly version of myself. I found the peace in the violence, I found my spot, I found my niche, and I feel good about it,” he exclaimed. “Nobody can take it away.”
Greg Hardy takes on Juan Adams at UFC on ESPN 4 this weekend at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX.
