March 06, (THEWILL) – Serghei Spivac has become the latest UFC fighter to defeat former NFL great Greg Hardy. On the main card of UFC 272 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, the “Polar Bear” won by TKO in the first round.
Spivac quickly took the battle to the ground, thus ending Hardy’s struggle and in a flash, he brought the contention to an end with ground blows.
Spivac’s technique was on display early in the bout as he used an underhook to land a judo throw against the larger Hardy. Even though Hardy was able to muscle his way up to his feet, he ended up back on the ground.
Spivac then manoeuvred his way into mount and kept raining strikes until the referee called a timeout just after the two-minute mark.
Hardy’s loss was painful, and analysts wondered what would happen next for the big heavyweight as his situation was made worse by his lack of progress in the fight. On the ground, he had no answers for Spivac and was unable to do anything on his feet before being taken down.
Spivac’s victory is significant because it helps him to rebound from a first-round TKO loss to Tom Aspinall. Before that, he had a streak of excellent victories, including decisions over Aleksei Oleinik and Carlos Felipe, as well as a knockout victory over Jared Vanderaa.
The Moldovan, who is 27 years old, has plenty of time to perfect his skill. He has shown enough to believe that he can work his way up to the next tier of heavyweights. Heavyweights typically fight well into their 30s.
Hardy, on the other hand, is a different storey. His future in the organisation is jeopardised as a result of this defeat. The 33-year-old has fought in the UFC ten times and has only four victories to his name.
This was also his final fight under his UFC contract, which added to the intrigue. Hardy did not say he wants to keep fighting in an interview with Cole Shelton of BJPenn.com, but he did say he wants to open the door for other ex NFL players to come into the fight game.
He even suggested that former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown participate in the game.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
