The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 150: Jacare vs. Hermansson

#1 Worst: Greg Hardy, in general

Greg Hardy finished Dmitri Smoliakov, but still got booed by the fans

The MMA fanbase as a whole gave a groan when the co-main event for this show was announced; a Heavyweight tilt featuring former NFL star Greg Hardy against the returning Dmitri Smoliakov. As we’ve been over before, Hardy’s UFC debut in January against Allen Crowder was disastrous and made it pretty clear that he wasn’t ready for that kind of spotlight yet, but it seems like WME are determined to keep on pushing with him.

The big question for me is why? If Hardy were a popular guy that the fans want to see succeed, then it’d be understandable that the UFC would want to bring him along slowly and push him as a star. But he’s not; instead he’s a guy with a very chequered past that the fans all know about, and whenever he’s seen, he’s greeted with vicious boos. And not the kind of tongue-in-cheek boos that the likes of Colby Covington get, either.

The fight last night was terrible – Smoliakov looked physically capable of facing up to Hardy but simply wilted under the former NFL player’s punching power, and while the newly-monikered ‘Prince of War’ picked up his first UFC win, it clearly came over a massively overmatched and hand-picked opponent.

The UFC needs to get the message that nobody wants to see this man succeed inside the Octagon, and the sooner they feed Hardy to a more popular – and more talented – Heavyweight like Curtis Blaydes or Tai Tuivasa, the better.