UFC Veteran Dan Hardy Joins Sky Sports Commentary Team for Mayweather vs. McGregor

Former UFC welterweight title challenger Dan Hardy will be part of the commentary team for the Sky Sports broadcast of the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.

MMAFighting.com first reported the news, which was announced during a conference call on Tuesday. Sky Sports is the primary sports provider in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Hardy, whose last Octagon appearance occurred in 2012, has served as an analyst primarily for the Las Vegas-based promotion’s UFC Fight Pass cards.

“This will be the first boxing match that I’ve worked on,” Hardy said. “Obviously I’ve worked a lot with boxers in the past. I’ve trained alongside boxers because back in the day with mixed martial arts, they were the only real combat athletes around me that knew what they were doing.

“…I know what it takes to get into the boxing ring and I know how difficult it is to become supremely skilled in such a narrow skillset like that because I’ve been in there with boxers and I’ve been pushed around,” he continued. “As soon as it becomes a mixed martial arts fight, [boxers] become interested. There have been questions that have come from [boxers] in the past that will prepare me for this, I think. I understand the boxing mentality and I understand what they’re going to be looking at as far as Conor McGregor as a new addition to the sport.”

Hardy is the second mixed martial artist to have a prominent role for the highly-anticipated fight. Last month, former UFC heavyweight talent Brendan Schaub was part of the commentary team for the Mayweather vs. McGregor promotional tour. “The Outlaw” believes he can offer more insight in his role than Schaub did.

“As much as like Brendan Schaub, I’ll admit that I thought a lot of the stuff he was saying was hot air. There were a lot of superlatives and celebration. There was not a great deal of substance to his analysis,” Hardy said. “He didn’t tell me where Conor should put his feet, where he should hold his hands, what we should be looking out for, what Floyd is going to be looking to do against a southpaw that fights outside of his normal range… there wasn’t really any analysis. It was more yelling over each other.

“What I’m hoping to bring to the table is some knowledge and some intellect.”