14 DAY TRIAL // Tom Hardy's popularity may be soaring just now with mainstream audiences because of his role as Bane in Chris Nolan's “The Dark Knight Rises,” but he already has an impressive track record of brilliant roles and physical transformations – something that boxing champion David Haye is well aware of.
Just the other day, Haye launched a challenge to Hardy to step up in the ring with him.
He didn't mean it as an insult in any way, The Sun is quick to clarify, but rather as praise for how incredibly bulked up he got for the role of Bane.
“Me and Tom Hardy, that would be a good fight for sure. He has got in fantastic shape – he looks like an absolute tank. He can be my next opponent,” Haye said.
Whether he was joking or not, Hardy would actually be up for the challenge, he says for the same media outlet, even if he knows from now that there's absolutely no way he could walk out of the ring as a winner.
However, proving that his heart is as big as his frame in his most recent film, his only condition for the match is that all proceeds from it be donated to charity.
As if his loyal fansbase needed another reason to love him even more.
“Hardy v Hayemaker? No problem. Let me take my make-up off first. I’ll fight him as soon as I get back from the Congo with my mates if he wants. I’ve never fought a professional heavyweight, it’ll be an experience,” Hardy says for The Sun.
“I would obviously prefer my first professional fight to be against someone in my weight category but hey-ho. Let’s have it. We all know how this is going to end don’t we... not good for Tommy,” the actor adds with what the tab describes as a “cheeky grin.”
“I’ll have Clay O’Shea as trainer and Joe Calzaghe on cuts in my corner. This is sort of like Mickey Rourke. But Mickey’s a better actor and boxer than me. How about singing lessons instead?” Hardy goes on to say.
Currently, Hardy is in Congo on charity work. He also tells The Sun that, if the boxing match finally goes through, he wants the money to go to Prince's Trust, Help for Heroes, Bowel Cancer Research, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and FLACK.