Heavyweights Greg Hardy and Allen Crowder squared off against each other tonight (Saturday, January 19th, 2019) inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., live on ESPN+ (free trial here). Hardy’s appearance was notable largely because of his troubled history with domestic violence, a history that ended his NFL career but evidently wasn’t enough of a concern to prevent Dana White from signing him to the UFC.
Hardy went after Crowder early, and began teeing off with Crowder’s back against the cage. Crowder clinched up with Hardy and looked for the takedown, but Hardy separated and they began swinging at each other. Hardy’s speed advantage was obvious, but Crowder caught a knee, walked him to the cage, and pivoted to get him to the mat. Takedown secured, he looked to pass guard, with Hardy trying to stand as he did so. Crowder got Hardy down again and got a crucifix for a second, with Hardy attempting a cage walk to get back to his feet. Crowder held him in a headlock and jumped for a guillotine, but slipped out and Hardy took top position. Crowder tried for a triangle, didn’t get it, and Hardy landed a last leaping right hand when he scrambled back to his feet.
Hardy looked tired between rounds. He landed a superman punch, but Crowder began to slip his punches and counter. Hardy feinted, and Crowder began taunting him hard, walked him down with a couple hard hooks and tried to take him down. Hardy sprawled hard, then landed an illegal knee that dropped Crowder! The referee separated the two fighters, saying that if Crowder could not continue, that would be a DQ loss for Hardy, and that’s what happened! That was a good call, it was a blatantly dirty knee by Hardy. His inexperience may have been a factor.
It was a strange way to get a victory, but the momentum did seem to be moving in Crowder’s direction. This will end up being something of an asterisk on both men’s records.
Official result: Allen Crowder def. Greg Hardy by DQ (illegal knee) at 2:28 of Round 2
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