Yorgan De Castro has no intention of making things personal with Greg Hardy ahead of their scheduled matchup at UFC on ESPN 8 in March.
De Castro (6-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) said the controversial former NFL standout Hardy (5-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) was someone he was extremely keen to fight, but not because of his checkered past. Rather, it was because he actually has respect for what his upcoming foe has done in the cage.
Hardy is coming off a short-notice loss to heavyweight title contender Alexander Volkov at UFC on ESPN+ 21 in November, and while he was decisively beaten in that fight, De Castro said it only further elevated his eagerness to book the matchup.
“I specifically asked for this fight,” De Castro told MMA Junkie. “This is the fight I wanted. I wanted to fight Greg Hardy. Not because of all the bad stuff around him, or the hate or the negative things, but because he’s got a name. A lot of people hate him, a lot of people like him, but he does have a name, and he just fought a top guy and he did good. If I want to fight someone who has got a name and a lot of people want to watch and is not ranked, what else is better than Greg Hardy? I specifically asked for him.”
Hardy’s troubled past makes him an easy target for anyone who choses to go the direction of trash talk. Some of his opponents have gone down that road and brought up his past, while others have refused.
De Castro said he is taking the latter approach.
“If you come with bad, negative, hateful emotions, that will set me up for failure and take the focus off what really matters,” De Castro said. “I can’t feed off that. This is about me; this is not about him. This is about me getting the chance to go in there, put my name out there and fight someone who just fought a top-seven.”
What De Castro will speak more boldly about, though, is how he sees the fight with Hardy playing out. The heavyweight matchup is part of the still-growing lineup at UFC on ESPN 8, which takes place March 28 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
De Castro said he knows Hardy is dangerous, but he thinks the highly aggressive style his opponent has shown in previous octagon appearances is exactly what will bring out his best.
“We’ve got a great gameplan, we got a good start of the fight camp right now,” De Castro said. “We’re not really worried about his grappling or his wrestling. He may try to take me down, but he’s not going to be able to keep me down. He’s very athletic, explosive and he’s going to come out very aggressive in the first round. But when people get aggressive – you saw what happened last time (in my UFC debut). When I get cornered and when people come to me, I’m not going nowhere. This is a good fight for me. I think he’s beatable, and I’ll beat him.”
For De Castro, the fact the UFC obliged to his request for Hardy shows good faith. He got a spectacular first-round knockout against Justin Tafa in front of a record crowd in his octagon debut at UFC 243 in October, and now he’s ready to deliver a memorable encore.
“I’m only 6-0, and people are going to ask a lot of questions and say, ‘He’s not ready, I want to see him against this guy,’” De Castro said. “But it’s the heavyweight division. Everyone has got power and everyone can knock everyone out. But the goal is to put on a show against Greg Hardy. The UFC thinks he can be a star and a lot of people think that, but when I win, people will start to look at me differently.”
Yorgan De Castro won't feed off 'hateful emotions' for Greg Hardy fight at UFC on ESPN 8
