"A sparring session's very different" - Dan Hardy explains what might be the turning point in Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington at UFC 272

Dan Hardy (left); Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal (right) [Image courtesy - @ufc on Twitter]

Dan Hardy feels that the sparring sessions between Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington during their time at American Top Team don't depict the real picture regarding how their fight might pan out. Covington previously claimed that he got the better of Masvidal in most of their sparring sessions when they were teammates.

The wait is 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 💥

@ColbyCovMMA vs @GamebredFighter fight week is 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 💢

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While Hardy admits that might have been the case, he also feels that the actual fight between the pair might play out differently. The Englishman explained that Masvidal didn't have the freedom to try and knock his sparring partner out in training. That, according to Hardy, allowed Covington to fully utilize his grappling skillset to take Masvidal to the ground.

Having said that, when the pair meet inside the octagon and Masvidal looks to brutalize Covington, things might turn out differently than expected. During an interaction with Submission Radio, Hardy said:

"A sparring session's very different. Masvidal may have quite happily spent rounds on the floor against Colby Covington because he wasn't going to be able to knock him out in the first minute of the sparring session. He's always going to end up on the back if he doesn't have those vicious intentions that you will in the fight. You can wrestle great and grapple almost a hundred percent the same as you can in a real fight. But what you can't do are those nasty elbows and knees in close that really make a difference and they're things that Covington won't have experienced in Masvidal's game."

Watch Dan Hardy talk about the upcoming grudge match:

Dan Hardy doesn't think Jorge Masvidal will attempt a flash knockout against Colby Covington

Masvidal pulled off the spectacular by picking up a flying-knee knockout over Ben Askren at UFC 239. 'Gamebred' put the former ONE Championship welterweight champion to sleep in just five seconds.

5 second knockout 🤯 masvidal just knocked out ben askren https://t.co/iPlMTi4ENo

While he does have the ability to finish fights with one strike, Hardy doesn't think Masvidal will try to replicate the finish over Askren against Covington. According to Hardy, Jorge Masvidal will adopt a more cautious approach in this fight and wait until Covington is vulnerable before starting to throw haymakers:

"I don't think Masvidal is going to come out with a flying knee. It wouldn't surprise me if we see his knees in the fight but I think they'll be later on. Maybe if the tides have turned on Covington and he's probably backed up against the fence and Masvidal is kind of picking his shots."

Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal are set to go to battle in a much-awaited grudge match headlining UFC 272 this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.