Former NFL star Greg Hardy denies doing any of the following one night in May 2014: Picking up his ex-girlfriend and throwing her into the tile tub area in his bathroom; causing bruises to her head, neck, back, shoulders, arms, legs, elbow and feet; pulling her from the tub by her hair; screaming that he would kill her or break her arms; dragging her across the bathroom and out the bedroom; placing both his hands around her throat to strangle her while she was on the floor; lifting her above his head and throwing her onto a couch covered with assault rifles; ignoring her pleas to be left alone.

Under these circumstances Hardy’s segue into professional mixed martial arts seems enough of a contrast to confuse the senses. In the morally pliable fight game, though, it is just another Tuesday, which is when Hardy will fight for a chance at a contract in UFC. It’s a bout that has led some to question the decision making of an organisation already dealing with the departure of its biggest female star and the erratic – and violent – behavior of its most bankable fighter, Conor McGregor.

Hardy was initially convicted of assault on a female and communicating threats over the 2014 allegations. But those charges were later dismissed as an appeal case was about to be heard, and then expunged, after his ex-girlfriend, who is believed to have reached a civil settlement with Hardy, stopped co-operating with prosecutors.

“There are many levels and layers to domestic abuse,” says Kim A Gandy, CEO and president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “But in terms of physical abuse, his [alleged offense] was fairly severe. It involved strangulation, which is one of the major red flags for potential homicide. That was the report to police officers and testimony in court. And there are some pretty horrible images of her injuries.”

Hardy, for his part, maintains his innocence. “People still call me a ‘wife beater’ on media circuits,” Hardy told the Guardian. “Nobody actually does their homework. I’m innocent, man. My government set me free just like it set anybody else free.”

Hardy’s statement is accurate to the extent that the charges were ultimately dropped but that’s “not the same as not having done it,” says Gandy, adding that abusers who do not reckon with what they’ve done are less likely to be rehabilitated in the long run. “Someone truly sorry who seeks to help and genuinely make amends is very different from a person who commits extraordinary violence and not only takes no responsibility for it but takes position that the person just deserved it.”

The NFL placed Hardy, once considered one of the best defensive ends in the league, on administrative leave during the 2014 season, suspending him 10 games before an arbitrator cut that number to four ahead of the 2015 season. His one-year $13.1m ‘second chance’ contract with the Dallas Cowboys fell flat, and his last game in the NFL came in January 2016 when he was still in his prime at the age of 27.

It may not be a surprise that Hardy has found a new home in mixed martial arts. According to a study of arrest records since 2003 by HBO Real Sports, mixed martial artists have a domestic violence arrest rate (750/100,000) more than double the general US population (360/100,000) and far ahead of NFL players (210/100,000). This may explain why Hardy’s arrival has, with a few exceptions, been mostly met with shrugs.

That indifference starts at the top. Despite telling Fox Sports Live in 2014 that “you don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman,” UFC president Dana White is now behind Hardy. “If you talk to anybody that he trains with, male or female, they say that he’s a very good guy, he’s very humble and everybody deserves a second chance,” White said on Saturday. “And the guy was never charged with anything. He was never sentenced or anything like that, so we’re going to give him a shot.”

Jessica Aguilar, the first female fighter to represent Hardy’s America’s Top Team gym, sees “absolutely no downside” teaching a man of Hardy’s size, power and reputation how to fight. Perhaps surprisingly, Aguilar’s opinion isn’t that different from that of Gandy. “As a football player he could have killed his victim with his bare hands or with any of those assault rifles on his bed,” Gandy said. “So I don’t think he’s going to learn any techniques in mixed martial arts that would make him any more deadly.”

There are dissenting voices within MMA though. Amy Kaplan, a survivor of domestic violence who has covered MMA since 2014, told the Guardian she will not watch or cover Hardy. “I don’t want to play a part in helping an abuser make a living,” Kaplan said. “I know that a lot of fans have reasoned away his being signed due to the victim failing to come to court, but the last thing a victim wants to do is face her attacker.”

NFL on Fox insider and MMA supporter Jay Glazer has also bemoaned Hardy’s moved into fighting, suggesting he should not be welcomed into combat sports unless he attempts to serve a purpose larger than himself.

Glazer’s notion that Hardy reflects poorly on MMA in the face of its move from a fringe sport into the mainstream is belied by what’s known about the UFC and the wider world of combat sports. From McGregor being charged with assault and criminal mischief following a rampage at a UFC press event in April (he has yet to enter a plea and is set to appear in court again on 14 June), to the rapists, murderers, and neo-Nazis who have fought in MMA the sport has countless examples of terrible behavior.

“MMA does attract the worst in people at times,” said Hardy’s chief trainer, retired UFC veteran Din Thomas. “I’m not saying everybody in the sport is a bad person. It just attracts the darker side of what we are as human beings. To get inside a cage and physically want to punch someone in the face and do that is kind of an unnatural thing. That’s our objective. It’s not to put a ball through a hoop or score a touchdown, it’s the punch people in the face and hurt people. At some level that allows a little more freedom for us to accept other aspects of negative human personality.”

As the UFC partners with ESPN, Hardy’s rise, or fall, will be seen around the world. The people who are aligned with him believe – probably correctly – viewers will watch. “There’s nothing I could tell the UFC about Greg Hardy that they don’t already know,” said Abraham Kawa, Hardy’s fight game representative with First Round Management, a Florida-based company boasting a client roster of professional football players and mixed martial artists. “What other sport can you go get another chance after doing some things you probably regret later? I don’t know if there is one.”

Should Hardy win his first pro bout, White has every reason to believe he can make backlash-free cash as an NFL pariah steps over a low bar and into the octagon. “Coming from my experience, and it’s minimal, the glory is unmatched in the cage,” Hardy said. “That beats everything. I ain’t never got a sack and felt that way. It’s kind of addicting. It’s a beautiful thing preparing to go to war.”

UFC and White will hope that war doesn’t come back to haunt them.