The announcement of Dan Hardy boxing Diego Sanchez may have come as a surprise to many – but not Hardy. Hardy meets Sanchez in an eight, two-minute round exhibition boxing bout on July 2 at AO Arena in Manchester, England. The 39-year-old has been dabbling with the idea of a comeback for years, but explains that Sanchez is someone he always expected to fight. “Diego and I have been on a bit of a collision course for a long while,” Hardy said on his YouTube channel . “I think it was back in like 2006 when we got a faceoff when we were fighting in Holland. It’s always been on the cards.