Former NFL Star Greg Hardy Sees MMA as a Chance to Turn His Life Around

Former NFL star Greg Hardy is hoping that his move into Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) will act as a catalyst for turning his life around.

The former Carolina Panthers defensive-liner has seen his fair share of trouble and turmoil. Domestic violence and drug charges have been instrumental in derailing his football career, but it is in MMA where the recent convert hopes to change his life.

Hardy has been living and breathing MMA, as he trains under the American Top Team banner with an abundance of UFC experience around him. The experience, Hardy says, has been humbling. The former footballer spoke with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of the MMA Hour:

“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.”

 

Previously accused of being unapologetic, Hardy spoke with honesty about his transgressions and his desire to change – he also said that he is embracing sobriety, and understanding that he has the ability to change his life around with the help of MMA:

“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, 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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