Greg Hardy Defeats Juan Adams Via 1st-Round TKO at UFC on ESPN 4

Greg Hardy defeated Juan Adams via technical knockout in a heavyweight division showdown Saturday during UFC on ESPN 4 at AT&T Center in San Antonio.

The two wasted little time going after each other by trading early jabs, but Hardy quickly managed to take Adams to the ground and land a number of blows. He landed so many punches when Adams was down that the official called the fight less than a minute after it started.

It was no surprise the fight didn't go the distance.

Hardy, who went 3-0 in amateur fights prior to turning professional, sported a 4-1 record with four knockouts entering the fight. Adams is another knockout artist who tallied five knockouts with a 5-1 record in his previous six fights.

There was plenty of talk heading into this anticipated showdown given those records, knockout potential and apparent bad blood.

The two didn't even make eye contact at the weigh-in before the fight.

Hardy didn’t exactly take a modest approach when he told ESPN (h/t Jesse Holland of MMA Mania), "I think I could be one of—if not the—the greatest fight sports heavyweight of all-time. Not even just MMA, just the greatest combat sports heavyweight. I’m versatile, you know?"

That versatility didn’t impress Adams, who pointed to an easy road leading up to this fight when talking to Nolan King of MMA Junkie:

"That’s where a lot of this comes from. Greg Hardy has fought cans. Even in the UFC, they’re going as far as to sign guys they’ve previously cut to give him an opportunity to look good, whereas my second fight in the promotion was Arjan Bhullar, who was 8-1. He was another top guy. I’ve challenged myself throughout my career, whoever they could find for me, whereas I feel like he’s cherry-picked his opponents. They’re trying to market him as this superstar athlete or crazy MMA talent, and he hasn’t displayed any of the skills."

Hardy was a well-known name before the UFC started marketing him.

He played for the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys from 2010 through 2015 during an NFL career that saw him reach the Pro Bowl in 2013. However, he was convicted of assaulting a woman in 2014, although the domestic violence charges were ultimately dismissed because the woman didn’t testify, per Ariel Helwani of ESPN.com.

Adams believed Hardy’s NFL past played a larger role than his MMA skills in earning some of the UFC’s marketing, but he learned about that talent the hard way during Saturday’s match.