Tom Hardy turns up at Milton Keynes school to win martial arts championship

Tom Hardy surprised martial arts fans by entering himself into a jiu-jitsu tournament in Milton Keynes.

The actor, best known for his roles in The Dark Knight Rises, Venom and Bronson, took part in and won the UMAC Milton Keynes BJJ Open 2022 which took place at Oakgrove School.

Hardy could be seen wearing a bright blue gi and is a blue belt in the submission based sport.

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Hardy entered the tournament under his real name Edward Hardy as seen on his winner's certificate.

Sean Rosborough, who sponsored the event, said organisers were aware the Oscar nominated actor would be appearing to compete.

Rosborough said: “We found out he was coming probably a couple of weeks before. But the organisers kept it to themselves – and didn’t want masses of people turning up distracting him from what he was doing. He was brilliant. A lot of people were asking for photos, and coming up to him, and he had no problem with that all. The mums were all over him. It didn’t bother him."

Hardy won all of his matches by submission and Andy Leatherland, who was beaten by the Inception star in the final, said: "I made a mistake and he capitalised on that. He absolutely nailed it, and he subbed me, and it was over relatively quickly."

Leatherland also revealed what Hardy said to him after their encounter: "He said, 'These things are nerve-wracking' and though he's often on the screen, he said jiu-jitsu is real and nerve-racking to do'."

Hardy originally began training jiu-jitsu for his role in 2011's Warrior, about a pair of brothers who are also mixed martial arts fighters.

Martial arts is also popular among a number of other Hollywood stars including Jason Statham, Snatch director Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr, Dwayne Johnson and Charlie Hunnam.

Watch below: Tom Hardy takes part in jiu-jitsu competition.