Jay Glazer mincing no words about Greg Hardy's MMA dream: 'If you're listening, choose another sport'

Count FOX Sports NFL Insider and MMA trainer Jay Glazer among those who don’t think former NFL standout Greg Hardy should give MMA a go.

But Glazer’s stance has nothing to do with whether or not he thinks Hardy could find success in the sport. It has everything to do with whether or not Glazer thinks Hardy is worthy of competing. And to that, his answer is undeniable.

“Greg Hardy, if you’re listening, choose another sport,” Glazer on Tuesday said on “The Rich Eisen Show” after taking umbrage with Hardy’s past, which has seen him initially convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in July 2014, only to have the charges dropped after the alleged victim refused to testify in the appeal.

Hardy played for the Carolina Panthers at the time. And despite the team initially planning to let him play after the charges were dropped, it reversed course, deactivated him and placed him on the exempt list. That ended his career with the Panthers, and signed with the Dallas Cowboys the following spring.

A month after he signed with Dallas, the NFL suspended him for 10 games without pay for violating the league’s conduct policy. That suspension was reduced to four games, and he finished out the season in Dallas. But after the season, the team chose to not re-sign him, and none of the other 31 teams in the league went after the 28-year-old defensive end before this season.

This past November, the domestic violence charges against him were expunged from his record. But then photos of his ex-girlfriend’s alleged injuries at his hands surfaced.

Glazer, who is plenty familiar with the Hardy story through his NFL work for FOX, told Eisen he’s been making the case for other MMA trainers to keep their distance from Hardy. Glazer has worked with MMA fighters and athletes the world over for years at the Unbreakable Performance gym he founded in Los Angeles.

“It’s pretty cut and dried, here,” Glazer said. “And I asked all my fellow MMA coaches not to give this guy a chance because he doesn’t deserve it. It’s a privilege to play this sport or play football, and we here at Unbreakable Performance, and I know other places I’ve worked, we actually train women to defend themselves against people like Greg Hardy and with threats to violence.

“I’m not on my high horse here. It’s an art. It’s martial arts. It’s the art of self defense, is how it started – not so you could use it to be more aggressive and more violent.”

Glazer said when it comes to people getting second chances after issues of domestic violence come up, there has to be some form of contrition. And he said he hasn’t seen that from Hardy. Hardy also was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance in Texas about two weeks ago, his most recent run-in with the law.

“I just think, first of all, the guy feels absolutely no remorse whatsoever and people are going, ‘Oh, well don’t you believe in second chances?’ What second chance? He’s not asking – there’s been no remorse,” Glazer said. “I love this sport. It’s a beautiful sport where you learn all these different arts. Someone like this does not deserve the privilege to do that. So yes, I’m calling on every other coach out there to not train this dude. He does not deserve it, he doesen’t deserve to be allowed to be around us, it’s not what we stand for.

“And I know people go, ‘Well, there’s a problem with domestic violence in MMA.’ There are individuals there who do that in our sport, too, and I don’t think they should be in our sport, either. That’s the bottom line. If you are violent with a woman, you play a violent sport, your privilege should be stripped of you. That is it. This guy shouldn’t be allowed in it. He tarnishes what I think is one of the greatest sports on the planet.”

According to MMAFighting.com, Hardy has been training for months and has the interest of some promoters. “I’m very focused and excited to start my MMA career,” Hardy said. “I’m going to do this the right way, I can assure you of that.”

A former NFL player moving over to MMA is nothing new. Former UFC heavyweight and current Bellator standout Matt Mitrione had the most success. Former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, who rushed for more than 8,000 yards in his NFL career, won a pair of fights when he was 47 and 48 years old for Strikeforce. But Michael Westbrook, Johnnie Morton and Marcus Jones didn’t experience the same kind of success.

“He’s going to have to start with some lower level fights, but again, I just hope nobody trains him,” Glazer said of Hardy. “Here’s a guy who used force to horrifically beat a young lady – let’s not give him more of those skills. Let’s use our time, anybody, that time you spend with Greg Hardy, let’s use it on teaching women how to defend themselves when you have somebody like this who does that.

“Greg Hardy, if you’re listening, choose another sport.”