Over the weekend, disgraced former NFL player Greg Hardy picked up his first UFC victory, thumping the completely passive Dmitrii Smoliakov to a first-round TKO.

With this first UFC win in the books, Hardy is already setting his sights on some of the UFC heavyweight division’s premier players, such as former champ Stipe Miocic and former title challenger Derrick Lewis.

Greg Hardy discussed these matchups in an interview with TMZ.

“They’re not in my mind, they’re in my sights, brother,” Hardy said of the two heavyweight stars (transcript via Bloody Elbow). “They’re locked in. With all due time.”

While Greg Hardy says these world class heavyweight mixed martial artists are already in his crosshairs, he does acknowledge he’s got some work to do before he fights them.

“There’s two aspects to play into it. I want to earn this, for one,” he said. “So that these loudmouths that run their mouth talking about ‘Oh, Greg doesn’t deserve like blah, blah, blah.’ Yeah, I do. Because I earned it. I worked my way up to here.

“And secondly, because I’m not ready. It’s like throwing a cub in there with some lions, man. It just doesn’t make sense,” Hardy added. “So when I go there, when I do fight these guys, hopefully, soon enough when I do elevate and graduate, it’s gonna be Goliath vs. Goliath. A war to be witnessed and loved and cherished forever and on through time.”

How far do you think Greg Hardy will get in the UFC heavyweight division?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 4/29/2019.