How close were we to seeing Hollywood actor Tom Hardy get into a grappling match with Arman Tsarukyan? Close enough that Hardy personally replied to the idea.
Arman Tsarukyan just grappled fellow UFC standout Shara “Bullet” Magomedov on a December Hype Fighting card. That’s a pretty interesting match-up, but it turns out it was the consolation booking. Hype Fighting CEO Armand Martirosyan recently shared pictures from his Instagram DMs revealing he sent an offer to Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max star
Tom Hardy for the spot.
Unfortunately for fight fans, Hardy turned down the bout, citing filming conflicts.
“Armand, firstly this is a very kind offer,” Hardy wrote Martirosyan back. “Where and why has it come from? It appears to be far more money than any professional BJJ practitioner would usually earn. So it’s not about that.”
Several lines of Hardy’s response were blacked out, with the next section of visible text reading “…also filming between now and March. Thank you so much for thinking…”
Hardy is currently starring in the hit series MobLand, created by Snatch and Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie. According to the show’s official Twitter, filming for season two started in mid-November and leaked photos of Hardy on set have appeared online over Christmas.
Would Hardy have done it otherwise? The actor is a purple belt under Roger Gracie and still pops up from time to time to win regional jiu jitsu gi tournaments, despite being 48 years old.
“Going down the local sports center to fight some bloke from Southampton or Milton Keynes who you’ve never met before is terrifying!” he told Esquire in a recent interview. “And people are watching, and they’ve got their phones out, and it could be embarrassing. It could end really badly.”
“I genuinely am keen to take on the painful journey of being brave enough to try something new … Because I’d like to not look back and say, ‘I regret not making the effort to do something that was scary.'”
Could Tom Hardy beat Arman Tsarukyan? Come on, now. Do you even have to ask? Would it be a fun and interesting exhibition match? We’d say so. Hopefully Hardy can make the schedule work down the line. It’s not like Tsarukyan has any important UFC matches to look forward to or anything.
