Former UFC fighter Greg Hardy set to make his professional boxing debut in October

Former UFC fighter Greg Hardy looks set to make his professional boxing debut later this year following his release from the UFC.

While he wasn’t exactly a fan favourite upon entering the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Hardy did manage to have some early success following his appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series. Alas, in the years following, the 33-year-old continued to suffer a string of defeats with losses to Marcin Tybura, Tai Tuivasa and Sergey Spivak marking the end of his tenure with the promotion.

Hardy made it known for quite some time that he wanted to test the waters in pro boxing and now, as per MMA Junkie, that’s exactly what he’ll be doing on October 8.

Hardy will be competing for Black Sheep Boxing with the contest taking place in Delray Beach, Florida. The opponent and number of rounds has yet to be confirmed.

As per his recent remarks, though, this is only the beginning, with Hardy shooting for a bout with some pretty big names.

“After I get done shutting this down, handling my MMA business, I want to venture into the boxing realm. I’m trying to holler at Dana (White). Hopefully, we can get some fights in the Zuffa Boxing world, Top Rank, Al Haymon – somebody come holler at this dude because I definitely want to go over there and knock out ‘The Gypsy King,’ make light work of that English cat Joshua, or whatever it is, ‘Cry-baby Bomber.’ We’ll knock all those guys out, man. Of course, you know I’m going to work for it. It’s an aspiration I think will come true real fast, and I can’t wait for it,” Hardy said (via MMAjunkie.com).

He’s facing an uphill challenge to get up to that kind of level but one way or the other, you can bet people will be tuning in to see it.