Saint Greg Hardy Takes A Shot At Derrick Lewis

Or holy shit, he said what?

Welcome to the latest C’Mon Now, a newsletter focused on mixed martial arts. This is the place where I’ll share my thoughts on all the goings-on in MMA. Those thoughts could range from media criticism to advice for folks looking to get into MMA writing to why certain fighters or managers are not good for the sport.

Today I’m going to focus on one of those fighters, who is not good for the UFC. That fighter is Greg Hardy.

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I was all ready to go in on John McCarthy for saying he couldn’t remember how many times he "controlled" a cageside doctor who wanted to look at a fighter during an MMA fight. That take is going to have to wait for another day, because Saint Greg Hardy seems to have forgotten at least one important moment from his past. That moment being when Mecklenburg County Judge Rebecca Thorn-Tin sentenced him to 18 months' probation and handed him a 60-day suspended sentence. Hardy's crimes? Assaulting a female and communicating threats.

Thorn-Tin listened to 11 hours of testimony before saying, "the court is entirely convinced Hardy is guilty of assault on a female and communicating threats."

During testimony, the woman said, "He looked me in my eyes and he told me he was going to kill me. I was so scared I wanted to die. When he loosened his grip slightly, I said just, `Do it. Kill me."

After he was sentenced, Hardy said, you know what, I would like a jury trial and so he got one. But, surprise(!), when that trial was close to starting, the prosecution dropped the charges. Why, you ask? Well, because the woman had made herself "completely unavailable." 

Not long after that, the charges against Hardy were expunged. 

Hardy has never shown one iota of remorse for his actions and yes, Hardy was found guilty. Don't let anyone — not Hardy, not UFC president Dana White, not a compliant MMA media, tell you that he is innocent or that he was never charged. 

Also, you can ignore that second-chance bullshit folks like to trot out. After his run with the Carolina Panthers ended, the Dallas Cowboys picked up Hardy. After one season in Dallas, Hardy was a pariah. No other NFL team wanted him on its roster and that should give you a clue about how toxic Hardy was at the time. The UFC is Hardy's third chance. But hey, whose counting? Certainly not Dana White. 

With his history, it was kind of a surprise to see and hear a smug Hardy take a swipe at Derrick Lewis in the lead up to Hardy's UFC Fight Night 163 matchup against Alexander Volkov in Moscow.

"I think he's like a felon, he's been to prison," Hardy told RT Sport when asked about Lewis saying Hardy was bad for the sport. "I just don't think somebody that's been to prison is allowed to say what the standard is. We don't listen to people that contradict themselves."

Hardy showing a complete lack of self-awareness, seemed to think he delivered a sick burn, instead he came off looking like a sociopath. 

Yes, Lewis did go to prison. When he was 19, he was hit with an aggravated assault charge after a fight which saw the victim, who Lewis said was a KKK member, lose sight in one eye. Lewis was handed two-years probation for that incident, but he violated that probation. That earned him a five-year prison sentence. Lewis served three-and-a-half years. 

Lewis said he grew bitter and angry in prison, especially when he was denied parole multiple times. However, Lewis eventually came to see that he needed to turn his life around. 

"My first time (being denied parole), my mind was still on some crazy stuff and getting out and getting some revenge," Lewis said. "Whenever they told us that I couldn't go home, I sat down and really had the anger built up in me. Then when they denied me the second time, then I really sat down and really had to change my thinking and my life and planning stuff that I need to be doing better when I get out. 

"I made my third parole and I believe if I had made it the first time, I wouldn't be here today. I still would've been out there doing stupid stuff."

Unlike Lewis, Hardy won't even acknowledge the crime he was found guilty of. He was given the chance to do so by ESPN in 2016 and holy shit did he make a disaster of that opportunity.

"I've never put my hand on any women ... in my whole entire life, no sir," Hardy said. "That's just not how we're raised. As you can tell, like I said again, it's the Bible belt. It's just something that's, I wouldn't even say frowned upon, just something that's nonexistent in most southern homes.

"I'm an innocent man. I've been proven not guilty and that's a situation in my past. As a grown man, as a football player of my caliber there are situations ... I could have done better, I should have done better.

"I will stop you there and say that I didn't say that I didn't do anything wrong. That situation occurred and that situation was handled but ... saying that I did nothing wrong is a stretch but saying I am innocent is correct. Yes sir."

I've said from the jump that Hardy shouldn't be in the UFC and I'll stand by that for as long as his MMA career lasts. It's astounding to me that people — and that includes the UFC who seem to be in love with him — can have the knowledge they have of what this man was found guilty of and just shrug their shoulders and move on. 

If you don't know all the details, check out the Deadspin story (with some very disturbing photos) on Hardy.