Dan Hardy Wants One More Fight | Joe Rogan

And for people who don't know, your career was taken from you in a way that you feel like didn't medically make sense. They told you to stop fighting because... Explain the whole heart condition thing. Well, it was in the build of the Mike Brown fight. You're a part wolf? I am part wolf, yes. I won't tell you which part. Yeah, it was in the build of the Mike Brown fight, the Mike Brown, Matt Brown fight. And because it's California, they required a bunch of different tests. And it just showed up as an irregular heartbeat. It's like I have a second heartbeat. So it's another bunch of cells in the heart that produce an electrical current. And it can confuse the heart, cause cardiac arrest, it can cause electrical issues with the heart. I'd never had any problems, never had any symptoms or side effects or anything like that. So basically what they told me is that if I wanted to continue fighting, I had to have an ablation. They had to go into my heart and they had to burn the cells that were producing the second electrical current. Fuck that. I've never had anything wrong with me at all. Healthy, I've pushed myself to whatever limits I think I've got and I'm hoping to find some more but I push myself. I know what my heart's capable of. And I've never doubted it. I've never felt like it was going to be there. And you were known for having good cardio. Yeah, I always pushed the pace. So I just didn't want to have anything done. They literally said to me, you can have it done and still fight on the same date. This was five weeks before the fight. Oh my God. So it just didn't... Have it done. So five weeks, so how much recovery time? Oh, practically none. So they go into the carotid artery and the femoral artery and they go into the heart. But Lorenzo sent me out to California. What? What are they going in there with? I don't know, some cables. These are being broken. The car in here. The car in here. It goes wrong. Yeah, exactly. And then I end up being Iron Man. I mean, you might have worked out. You come out with powers. But Lorenzo sent me out to Beverly Hills to a specialist out there to have more checks done. And they couldn't find anything, any anomalies with my heart. No additional growth or anything like that. So I just said, I'm not having anything done. I went back to the UK and then I was busy for a few years doing the commentary. But I did go and see a specialist, a cardiac specialist for athletes. And he put me through all the same tests and he points out what they'd seen. And he said that it could have been accentuated because I was weight cutting. I was in training camp. I was tired. He said, but ultimately there's nothing in these records that show that you can't fight and you're not safe to fight. So I have the paperwork now. So four months in, you start a test in Portland. I've just got the option to step back in there. I would like one more because I never felt like I showed what I'm fully capable of. Well, last time we sparred. Oh, I spar regularly. I drop in the gym because I've got guys that are training for fights. So we've had Terry Brazier fighting recently, Adam Amasinga, Dean Truman fought recently. So I've been in there moving around with those guys. And you've never really gotten out of training training. You've always trained martial arts this whole time, right? Yeah. And I've always stayed healthy. I never gained any, I actually lost weight after I stopped fighting because my diet changed. I didn't feel the need to be constantly eating all the time. So I just, I allowed my body just to kind of figure out where it wants to be naturally. 182, 184 is perfect for me. So my plan is just to kind of get to about 85% condition and just sit there. And then, like, I mean, this weekend is a great example. If like, you know, Pettis or Diaz fell out and there's no one else around, that's the kind of place I just throw my name in the hat and just to be available. And one of those fights will be perfect for me. Just to, you know, one of the veterans of the game, someone that's like not too concerned with the rankings or anything like that, drop in there, have a great fight and then step back out again and just be able to. How you'd like to approach it, you want to immediately jump back in and fight someone with a big name? Oh, for sure. I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to, because I'm having one more fight. I want someone, just one more. That's it. I want someone that everyone knows. But if you love it, though, well, I know I will love it. But I feel very, I feel very selfish thinking about fighting again anyway, because it's not what I've realized since I've been fighting is it's not just me coming out of retirement. It's like it's my whole family. Like I was, I was there, I was there when Till got knocked out in London. I was there when Gunnar Nelson got knocked out in Glasgow. I see the reactions of their family. I know what I put my family through. And because I've had time to kind of step back and like allow them some time to, you know, the the the hot souls aren't as calcified to the idea of me fighting anymore. You know, yeah, it's a serious conversation to have. But I mean, the reality is like, and, you know, the sport's very different now. Everything's changed. Like when I was fighting GSP, the conversations I was having with the media was, you know, what we are and aren't allowed to do, you know, what's legal, what's illegal. So it wasn't really about about what I was doing. It was about I was basically being an ambassador for the sport while I was in training camp. So now it would it would be far more of an internal journey. I'd be able to to really embrace it a lot more and focus on myself. You know, and now I've got, you know, my my camera guys, I'd like to document the process. I'd like to be able to speak quite candidly to the camera and just bank a load of stuff. So after the fight, I've got all this all this footage that I can put into something to kind of give some insight into the mentality of the fighter and the ups and downs of training camp because, you know, the days you show up to media day to the press conference and you're like, you know, you're confident in the stage and you shit talk and your opponent and you smile and stuff like you might get back to your dressing room and you might be exhausted. You might feel like shit. You might you might have been playing a game for a particular reason. And there's a there's a good reason you're playing that game. And I think that a lot of those narratives go untold because the sport moves so quickly. And I think I might be able to give like a nice little insight into that. So if we are going to expect this, how much time do you think you need to fully prepare? Where are you at right now? I always work on percentages. I would say physically and I would say I'm about I don't know, about 58% condition. Fifty eight. That's an interesting number. Yeah. I just choose that. Well, because I'm working through a couple of injuries. So I've not been doing a lot of hands on stuff. I've been doing a lot of training on my own. I'm starting to build up my aerobic base again. But the one thing I've noticed is and like I smoke most days, like my conditioning, like always is good. Like I can just get out and run 10 miles and feel comfortable with it. And that's never changed. So all I want, all I need to do is just kind of just kind of test that the toughness in that condition now and push it, you know, to the points where I feel uncomfortable. How old are you now? Thirty seven. Dun dun dun. I'm healthy. I've not, you know, I've not drank in 20 years. I've had ibuprofen since 2009. You know, I just I have nothing. And you've been out of competition for how many years now? It's been seven years now. Seven years bro. I told you I work in cycles. Yeah, you do. This is my, this seven year cycle. Seven year cycle? Yeah. Well, this is a man. I hope you do it. I hope you fulfill your vision quest like Matthew Modine in that movie. Thanks man. Just fucking do it. It'll be beautiful to see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.