Former NFL star Greg Hardy has walked a troubled road in his young life, that has now led him to the world of mixed martial arts (MMA).
The former Pro Bowl defensive lineman for the Carolina Panthers has run into issues with domestic abuse and Cocaine possession charges, before making the announcement that he will be making the dramatic athletic career switch over to the fight game. Hardy has landed himself at the American Top Team gym in Coconut Creek, Florida where he lives in the fighter dorms and learns the fundamentals of MMA from some of the best coaches in the world.
Hardy recently joined MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour yesterday (Mon. February 27, 2017) to discuss how the move to ATT has helped him grow as a human being (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“It’s helped me a lot of ways,” Hardy said. “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.”
The former Carolina Panther’s NFL career began to take a downward spiral after he was arrested in 2014 for domestic assault against his ex-girlfriend, who claims Hardy threatened to kill her and threw her on a bed full of guns. A Carolina judge found Hardy guilty, however, the charges were dropped after his ex-girlfriend failed to show up for court, as the two reached a settlement outside of the courtroom.
An interview in April of 2016 with ESPN’s Adam Schefter didn’t help his public image any, as Hardy came across rather remorseless for the whole ordeal:
“I kinda regret, overall, just the way it came across,” Hardy said. “It was a moment where I needed to portray something for myself, not to make anybody believe anything, but just as a man and as a person — I wanted to get something across, and that didn’t get across. The fact that I wasn’t able to let people know how sorry I was about it, that was something that really frustrated me, the outcome that people got from it.”
Hardy is ready to right all of his wrongs now and embark on a path to a better life, as he is set to begin drug rehabilitation and anger management classes next month per the request of his new manager Malki Kawa:
“Honestly, I believe there’s standards that everybody has,” Hardy said. “For (Tyron) Woodley and Tom Brady, there’s standards for champions. There’s standards for Pro Bowl players. There’s standards for the people who put themselves up there athletically in a good way, so there should be standards. You shouldn’t be out at night. Things like that. God gives you opportunities and chances, and you make those decisions and choices. Every decision and choice I’ve made, I have made it.”
The newest member of the ATT claims to be doing great when it comes to maintaining his sobriety, as his court case for Cocaine possession is set to get underway this week:
“I don’t even think I can remember,” Hardy said. “It’s been awhile, man. I had an eye-opening experience, like [Kawa] said. It’s just, once you start realizing that it’s your fault and that you are in a place that everybody wants to be, and that you removed yourself from that place, man, you start looking at the reason. So, there were a lot of reasons of why I wasn’t there, and I just started in MMA mostly trying to figure it out, because I didn’t know. … You don’t go from being a franchise tag defensive end to being nobody and everything went right.
“Honestly, that’s how it makes me feel. It feels like I did this to me, and it sucks. I was where I needed to be, I had everything that I wanted, and the normal story is, ‘man, somebody took it away,’ and I don’t have that. I took it away from myself. Now I’m nobody. I’m nowhere. I’m just in the middle of where I put myself.”
Hardy was finally asked the question that has troubled his athletic career for the better part of four years, whether or not he has ever physically abused a women. Hardy responded with a simple ‘no sir’ and went on to say that ‘nobody knows the whole story’ of what transpired that day:
“Like I said, I’m in this position that I’m in, I did it to myself,” Hardy said. “But at the same time, nobody knows the whole story, so I have to take everything with a grain of salt. Those people that don’t want me there (in MMA), I understand. … I’m not Junior dos Santos, who’s been here and putting in the hard work all these years. I’m a new guy coming into the sport that these guys built, so that’s something that’s going to come along with it. Like I said, (ATT owner) Mr. (Dan) Lambert, I appreciate those guys and [Kawa] letting me come in and have the opportunity to prove that I belong here, that I’m somebody who can actually help the sport and bring a work ethic or something good, whatever I can bring that’s good to it, so that people don’t go into thinking instantly when they hear my name, ‘oh, Greg is a wife beater. Greg is a woman beater.’
“Honestly, I wish this stuff never happened. I’m sorry for everything and everybody that I hurt, and coming from a place like that, it makes you grateful for the opportunities that you have, not worried about the negative people that are coming in. They have a right to have that opinion. I’m telling you, I answered your question and I stick to my answer because it’s the truth. But because of what I did, like [Kawa] said, the reasons I was there, any of it, all of it, I did the work, I had it all, and I gave it away. So they have the right to think those things. I’m just glad that Mr. Lambert and all these guys are giving me the opportunity. I’m grateful to come in and not be nobody, be somebody that kids like my son, like my mom and my sisters and my aunts, these people that I’ve been around my whole life, will be proud of and hopefully I’ll win these people over. And if not, at minimum, I hope that I prove and show everybody that I’m a Greg Hardy that’s worth somebody putting their name besides and behind, and that you can respect, who brings something good to a sport, at minimum.”
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