Former NFL player turned MMA fighter Greg Hardy suffered a knee injury in an arena football game Saturday night.
Hardy, who also currently stars for the Richmond Roughriders of the American Arena League, was hurt in the first quarter of the Roughriders’ 57-43 win over the Carolina Energy. Hardy is expected to get the knee examined by doctors in the coming days, sources told ESPN. The severity of the injury is unclear at this time.
The timing is unfortunate for Hardy, who won his professional mixed martial arts debut four days prior to the football game and was subsequently signed by the UFC. According to sources, Hardy isn’t sure if the knee injury will delay his next fight, which hasn’t been signed yet,
Hardy’s foray into mixed martial arts has been met with heavy criticism, in large part due to the fact that the former member of the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys was convicted in 2014 of assaulting a woman and communicating threats. After appealing his conviction and asking for a jury trial, Hardy reportedly reached a civil settlement with the victim and the domestic violence charges were subsequently dismissed and expunged from Hardy’s record after the woman could not be located to testify.
Hardy has said that he would drop his MMA career if an NFL team offered him an opportunity to return to that league, where he has not played since 2015.
The 29-year-old made his amateur MMA debut in 2017 and went 3-0 before turning pro last week.
The Roughriders will meet the Atlanta Havoc in the AAL finals on June 30.