Greg Hardy's professional MMA debut will come against another former NFL player.
Hardy will face former defensive end Austen Lane on June 12 in a heavyweight bout on the Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series, it was announced during the UFC 224 broadcast.
Lane, who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears from 2010 to 2014, is 4-0 as a professional MMA fighter.
"At the end of the day, when we go in the cage, we're just going to be two fighters. Obviously we'll both have some athleticism that has carried over from the NFL, but I don't consider him former NFL player Greg Hardy, I consider him MMA fighter Greg Hardy, and that's how I'm going to approach what he's bringing to the table," Lane said in an interview with FloCombat.com.
Hardy hasn't played football since 2015. He was arrested in 2014 after allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend. A domestic violence case against him was eventually dropped and expunged from his record. He pleaded guilty to an unrelated misdemeanor drug charge in 2016.
Hardy fights out of American Top Team, in Coconut Creek, Florida. He has won all three of his amateur MMA fights via first-round knockout.
ESPN's Brett Okamoto contributed to this report.
