Preview: UFC 272 ‘Covington vs. Masvidal’

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Heavyweights

NR | Sergey Spivak (13-3, 4-3 UFC) vs. NR | Greg Hardy (7-4, 4-4 UFC)

ODDS: Spivak (-200), Hardy (+170)

It is honestly a bit of a surprise that Hardy is still here. The UFC bringing Hardy on was always an odd calculation. He was a successful NFL player, but nearly all of his notoriety came from the domestic violence issues that forced the end of his football career. The UFC apparently felt that Hardy’s name value, such was it was, was valuable enough to take the risk, particularly with the idea that his size and athleticism would carry him up the heavyweight ranks. Hardy does certainly bring a physical force to his fights, but it quickly became apparent that he would struggle with the mental side of his new sport. In his UFC debut, Allen Crowder survived the early going, and that alone was enough to frustrate Hardy enough to throw a blatant illegal knee for a disqualification loss. The UFC has brought Hardy along slowly enough that he has developed some level of technique and composure, but he ranks among the worst fighters on the roster in terms of handling adversity. He memorably used an inhaler between rounds during his fight with Ben Sosoli and crumbled badly in the second round of his fight against Marcin Tybura to cap off 2020. With his lone fight of 2021 being a quick knockout loss to Tai Tuivasa, Hardy’s high price tag and increasingly limited ceiling figure to be enough for the UFC to cut bait sooner rather than later. For now, he tries to get a win against Spivak. Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 272 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

After losing quickly to Walt Harris in his UFC debut, Spivak has carved out a niche for himself as one of the better wrestlers and grapplers in the heavyweight division. Getting there can sometimes be an adventure, but “The Polar Bear” has a dogged dedication to his craft, making a name for himself early with an upset win over Tuivasa and putting together a solid three-fight winning streak in recent years. The issue for Spivak has been better wrestlers—such as Tybura—or better athletes. On top of his quick loss to Harris, Spivak’s most recent fight was a quick knockout loss to Tom Aspinall. Spivak could find himself in a dangerous spot early, between Hardy being a knockout threat and possibly too large to outwrestle easily at first. Barring that quick finish, Spivak figures to break Hardy in a manner similar to the way Tybura did. The pick is Spivak via second-round submission.

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