Controversial ex-NFL player Greg Hardy is set to make his MMA debut next month.
Hardy, 29, will take on Joe Hawkins in an amateur heavyweight bout on November 4. He has been training at American Top Team (ATT) in preparation for his amateur MMA debut, which will take place at Rise of a Warrior 21 at the Havert L. Fenn Center in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The former Carolina Panther and Dallas Cowboy fell from grace after his highly-publicized domestic assault case back in 2014, when his girlfriend at the time alleged Hardy beat her and threatened to kill her.
Hardy received only 18 months of probation and the charges were later dropped after the victim refused to testify.
He played for the Dallas Cowboys after the incident, but was dropped after the 2015-2016 season and has been pursuing a career in mixed martial arts ever since.
“It’s helped me a lot of ways, I have a lot of problems as a human being. It’s not something that you do, just walking around saying ‘I’m perfect’ or ‘I’m good.’ Man, I have a lot of different issues that I’m definitely working through and working on. I would say this helps me channel everything. It helps me just come back down to Earth, be humble, because these are machines that I see everyday. I get choked out, punched in the face, and laid out on the mat daily, and that’s not something that a guy my size and my stature with my history has every come across.
“It’s a humbling experience, man,” he continued. “Actually, it’s making me really appreciative of everything that I’ve had and everything that I have, and the opportunity that I have to kinda come in and show myself as a guy that is not what everybody says on TV, or, ‘he’s not a monster, he’s not a killer, a women beater,’ this, that and the other. It gives me an opportunity to just come in, be a humble guy, and learn, and honestly just be at the feet of all these champions who walk around like they’re just normal guys … and have the opportunity to make myself better one more time, one last time in sports and life in general.”
Hardy will compete at heavyweight; with his 6’4 frame and raw athleticism, do you expect Hardy to make any waves in MMA?
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