Gym 01's Hardy fired up for Shock N Awe main event at Portsmouth GuildhallÂ
The Royal Navy ace tops the bill against Jean Do Duc at Portsmouth Guildhall tonight.Â
Hardy makes his comeback after suffering a nasty cut during his TKO victory over Bailey Gilbert in June '“Â which moved his professional record to 3-1.
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Hide AdIt forced him to pull out of his fight against Kingsley Crawford on BAMMA Fight Night London later that month.Â
The Darlington-born charge has made a full recovery from that setback, though, and is excited to return to the cage.
He meets a dangerous opponent in Frenchman Do Duc (5-2), whose five wins have all arrived via first-round submission.
Hardy, who trains out of Fratton's Gym 01, knows he's heading into his toughest battle to date.
But the 23-year-old is confident he'll come out on top.Â
Hardy said: '˜I can't wait for the fight at the Guildhall.
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Hide Ad'˜I was there not long ago with the Royal Navy boxing team and couldn't believe how big it was.
'˜My cut has recovered now and it's been fine during sparring.
'˜After my last fight, I also had a couple of injuries that kept me out of the cage.
'˜My opponent is a late replacement, but I haven't been focusing on that too much.
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Hide Ad'˜I've just been focusing on my own game at the end of the day.
'˜He's got five submission wins but I've been working a lot on my ground game.
'˜In my last fight against Bailey Gilbert, I surprised a few people by taking it to the ground.
'˜At first, I focused a lot on my stand up but it's MMA at the end of the day and you've got to be well-rounded in all areas.
'˜My opponent has never been out of the first round.Â
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Hide Ad'˜He's been finished twice in the first round and I'm hoping that I can use that to my advantage.
'˜I'm confident I can get another victory.'
Hardy missed out on a prized opportunity to meet Crawford on the BAMMA card.Â
Gym 01 head coach and Shock N Awe promoter, Gareth Johnson, stressed it was the correct decision.
He said: '˜We pulled him out of the last fight because obviously the cut was never going to heal.
'˜You put someone in with a cut like that and it's potentially career-changing and life-changing damage that can be done.
'˜But now looking at him you wouldn't even think it'd happened.'