As made even more evident this weekend, Tom Hardy isn’t fucking around.
The Mad Max: Fury Road and Dunkirk actor, who last year led the Venom sequel to mid-pandemic box office success, was a surprise participant in Ultimate Martial Arts Championships’ 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship competition in Milton Keynes on Saturday. Per a report from the Guardian, citing Hyde News & Pictures, Hardy also emerged victorious in his division.
Hardy is a blue belt-level practicer of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and has bagged wins in the field before, including earlier this year at an event in the Wolverhampton region.
Speaking with regional outlet TeessideLive, Danny Appleby—who faced off against Hardy at the latest event—recalled the surprise of finding out his opponent would be the actor.
“I didn’t know he was going to be there. And they expected me to remain composed,” Appleby said, adding that Hardy ultimately told him to simply focus on doing “what you would normally do” in a match.
“He certainly lived up to his Bane character,” Appleby said.
Hardy will soon be seen in director Gareth Evans’ Netflix thriller Havoc, which is set to arrive on the streamer at some point next year. He’s joining in the cast by Timothy Olyphant and Forest Whitaker, among others. The project is part of a larger exclusive deal Evans inked with Netflix in 2021 and marks the first release under the ongoing partnership.
