LAS VEGAS – Until late last year, things had been going pretty smoothly for Veronica Hardy since her comeback.

Hardy returned to MMA after a three-year layoff in March 2023. She slowly, but surely, started to make some noise at flyweight with upsets of Juliana Miller in her first fight back, then Jamey-LYn Horth. After a win over JJ Aldrich, 125-pounders were on notice.

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But at UFC 309 and the biggest lights of her career at Madison Square Garden, she was upset by Eduarda Moura and fell back into the pack.

It’s been nearly a year since that loss, and this week at UFC 320 (pay-per-view, FX/ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+) Hardy (9-5-1 MMA, 4-5 UFC) has a crucial chance to get back on track against Brogan Walker (7-4 MMA, 0-2 UFC).

Their fight opens the card Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. Hardy said she’ll be hoping to put the last 10 months of lessons to work.

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“I have a lot of frustration from my last fight, if I’m being honest,” Hardy told MMA Junkie this week. “I tried to be so technical that I almost forgot I was in a fight. I let it slip away and I didn’t do anything. It was quite boring. I could hear the frustration in my corners’ voice.

“There was a lot to take from that, a lot to learn, a lot to grow, and to realize there are different aspects of the fight. It’s not just the analytical MMA side, but it’s also about going out there and putting on a great performance, putting on a fight with a lot of intention – something I had no problem doing before. … Finding the right balance has been my focus.”

If her loss to Moura was frustrating to her, it didn’t seem to affect the oddsmakers this week. Those particular pundits, along with the betting public, have Hardy nearly an 8-1 favorite against Walker. That makes her the second biggest betting favorite at UFC 320 and one of the biggest betting favorites in the promotion the entire year.

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An expected win would make her 4-1 in her past five, and it theoretically would start her toward a path of opponents in the top 15 – where she’d then be approaching, herself. But Hardy said before that can happen, she needs to show up and show out, not just for the bosses, but herself.

“I need to prove to myself that I belong there,” she said. “I need to perform the way I know I can. I don’t think I’ve been able to showcase that, and that’s quite frustrating. It’s been like, ‘Whew. I won. I got that over with.’ That’s not the way I train. I train very hard, very diligent, and that needs to show. I need to start believing that.”

Check out Hardy’s full interview with MMA Junkie above.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Veronica Hardy hoping to shed some of her analytical style at UFC 320