Dan Hardy is kind of retired? Maybe not completely, but he isn’t fighting any time soon, at least not under the UFC banner. The doctors in the US refuse to medically clear him of his Wolff Heart syndrome, even though he’s in fantastic shape and trains fine. Doctors want to open him up, you see, and Hardy doesn’t want to have his heart operated on for any reason he doesn’t believe in, so now he sits, doing nothing much. Surely not fighting.
He blames it on the US medical system.
Hardy spoke to The National:
“The health-care system is a business in the US, I never had any preconceived notions but it always surprised me that you can’t walk into a hospital in one of the most powerful countries in the world and get treatment.
“It’s just the way the system is set up. Unfortunately, because it is a business, every doctor is a salesman. Is that not a conflict of interest? A guy trying to sell you surgery is trying to make money off it. Why would he give you an honest opinion?”
“I wouldn’t fight MMA for other organizations, as much as I love that we have others out there, I’ve become so accustomed to being a part of the UFC machine, it wouldn’t feel right. I wouldn’t have the same kind of passion to compete as I do here.”