Heavyweight prospect Greg Hardy (4-1, 4 KOs) will meet fellow knockout artist Juan Adams (5-1, 5 KOs) at UFC on ESPN 4 on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at the AT&T in San Antonio, Texas. The card airs live on ESPN starting 9pm ET.
The UFC is keeping their shiny new heavyweight to busy in 2019. Former Dallas Cowboy Greg Hardy will make his third appearance in 2019 this Saturday when the All-Pro meets Jaun Adams on the main card of UFC on ESPN 4 in San Antonio.
Hardy bounced back from a dismal UFC debut with a win over Dmitry Smoliakov in his last outing. But so far, both his UFC appearances have been bizarre. He DQ’d himself against Allen Crowder in a fight he looked well on the way to losing. Crowder exposed Hardy’s lack of cardio and technique simply by surviving Hardy’s initial onslaught. Against Smoliakov, Hardy had an opponent who looked like he wanted no part of Hardy, and largely looked like a deer in headlights until Hardy mercifully ended it.
Hopefully, Adams will put up more of a fight. The Houston native is 1-1 in the UFC, most recently coming off a loss to Arjan Bhullar this past May. It was his first loss in six professional fights, as Adams had finished all five of his opponents leading into the matchup.
Like it or not, Hardy will be a big draw because of his past as an NFL All-Pro. The UFC learned its lesson in matching him against even mid-tier heavyweights, instead choosing to find fringe roster opponents. Obviously, this makes him a huge favorite according to the UFC odds at the online sportsbook. Let’s take a look at your best betting options. Reminder: live UFC betting at BookMaker.eu lets you hedge your bets between rounds on fight night.
UFC Odds at BookMaker.eu
Greg Hardy -115
Juan Adams -115
Fight goes/doesn’t go to decision: +345 / -515
Significant Striking Stats
Landed per minute: Hardy 5.75 / Adams 7.41
Accuracy: Hardy 49% / Adams 55%
Absorbed per minute: Hardy 1.74 / Adams 2.91
Defense: Hardy 64% / Adams 42%
Grappling Stats
Takedown average: Hardy 0.00 / Adams 0.99
Takedown accuracy: Hardy 0 / Adams 100%
Takedown defense: Hardy 80% / Adams 57%
Submission average: Hardy 0 / Adams 0
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Right now, Hardy is nothing more than a swarmer with a massive toolbox of physical talents. This is not a complete fighter, but heavyweight is a division where a fighter can get pretty far just on raw potential. He learned a lot of lessons from the Crowder fight, and came out against Smoliakov much more patiently instead of just trying to truck him over. Let’s not forget that Hardy also trains in a gym full of killers at American Top Team.
There are a lot of similarities between Hardy and Adams. Like Hardy, Adams is a natural athlete brimming with potential. He’s a massive 6’5” and has to cut weight to make the 265-pound weight limit. But he’s not much beyond that. Like his opponent, Adams wins by simply overwhelming his opponents and hasn’t shown much technique beyond that. However, in his last matchup against Olympian wrestler Arjan Bhullar, Adams showed that he could grind for three round and hold back on blowing his load with an attempt to score a knockout.
This is one of those impossible to predict matchups. It seems like either Hardy or Adams could start free swinging at any time - and both have massive knockout power to end the fight early. Or this could end up being two prospects circling each other, justifiably weary of getting knocked out. Either way, it’s a tough bet.
UFC Odds Pick: Adams to win at -115
With the striking power being equal, we’ll lean on the guy with the better cardio. Adams isn’t just a swang-and-bang type, he actually spent a lot of time against Bhullar pushing him into the cage. If he knows how to work the tie-ups and and make it out of the first round, the fight should get easier the longer it goes. We like Adams to win at the current price.
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