The bout would eventually be overturned to a no contest by the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission (MSAC) due to Hardy using an inhaler between rounds two and three.
UFC President Dana White, who was in attendance at the event, has no clue as to what Hardy’s corner was thinking throughout the whole ordeal.
“I have no clue what anybody who was involved in that situation was thinking,” White said after the event (via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “Let me start here with and I don’t want to sound like I’m being negative on the commission, but these guys don’t have a lot of big fight experience when we come into places that aren’t Vegas. You see it with different referees and judging and things like that, they don’t have the fight experience. I don’t know what anybody was thinking. From Din Thomas, the rest of the cornermen, Greg Hardy, the commissioner that was in the Octagon with them. You can drink water. It’s pretty simple. So I don’t know. For me to speak on what anybody was thinking, we have it on video, we have it all on video and audio, the whole conversation.”
Hardy, who has been involved in many controversies before and during his UFC run, feels that people were let down by the inhaler usage.
”I’m just worried about what my boss thinks,” Hardy said after the event (via Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting). “The worst part for me is, here I am letting people down again. It’s a sucky feeling, dude.”
Longtime referee and Bellator MMA color commentator John McCarthy doesn’t believe that Hardy intentionally tried to cheat by using the inhaler.
“The person that has knowledge, the person that is responsible for that corner is the inspector,” McCarthy said to MMA Fighting. “The Massachusetts State Athletic Commission assigned that person to that corner for that fight. He is the representative, he is the arm of the commission and Greg Hardy didn’t do anything other than ask, ‘Can I use my inhaler?’ [The inspector] asked the question of, ‘Is it approved?’ What is Hardy thinking, he’s thinking, ‘All my drugs have to go through USADA’ and so he goes, ‘Yeah, it’s USADA-approved.’ And [the inspector] gives permission—he should never have done that—to the fighter to use the inhaler, so the fighter uses it. Did Greg Hardy try to cheat? No. He’s asking in front of everyone, ‘Can I use this?’ So everything that you’re looking at, no matter what, goes down to one person. It was that inspector who allowed him to do that. That inspector did not know the rules and that inspector created the entire situation. All he needed to say is, ‘I don’t know. Don’t do that. Let me find out.’”
MSAC spokesperson Carolyn Assa states that Hardy didn’t get pre-approved by the MSAC to use the inhaler.
“The inhaler was not pre-approved by the commission for use during the fight in accordance with the Commission’s regulations,” Assa wrote in an email to MMA Fighting. “Therefore, the commission overturned the win and declared the bout no contest.”
There is no word yet on what is next for Hardy and Sosoli, as to whether or not they will meet again in the Octagon or go their separate ways.
