I'm not going to win many friends by saying this, but I don't think Hardy meant anything offensive and I also don't think he is guilty of the crime he was accused of.
The description of the beating by his accuser was horrifically brutal. He pushed her to the ground and she ran to the bathroom where he grabbed her and slammed her repeatedly into the toilet. He, and keep in mind he's a 6'4" 275 lb. powerhouse, then picked her up over his head and slammed her down into a hard tiled bath tub. Then he dragged her out of the tub and into a different room by her hair where he proceeded to strangle her while threatening to murder her. He then grabbed her forearm and tried to break it. Then picked her up and threw her across the room and then picked her up again and threw her onto a couch full of guns.
Despite this vicious beating, it was revealed during the bench trial that she walked away with nothing more than a dime sized bruise on her shoulder. That doesn't add up to me.
He also stopped in the middle of his rage and called the cops asking them to come to his apartment and remove his violent girlfriend because he was too afraid to touch her. He could also be heard on the phone call yelling to his friend to keep holding her back and not let her near him. Now, it's possible he had the presence of mind to do that to cover for his actions, but considering the rage she described, that sounds unlikely. The police arrived and said he was cooperative while she refused to talk and the police thought she was fine and let her go. Her complaint came a day or days later, I don't recall exactly.
A couple of days earlier, police were called to another domestic disturbance between the two in a parking lot of, I think, a mall. A security guard called them after seeing her becoming violent. The police got there and found him locked in his car while she was outside kicking it and damaging it. The police, the security guard, and random bystaders all said she was out of control and violent while he remained calm the whole time.
We also know she was on cocaine and alcohol the night of the attack and he had only been drinking and did not sound particularly drunk on his phone call to the police.
Now, he was found guilty in a bench trial, but my understanding is that in NC that is not much more than an indictment where his lawyers were very limited and it was wrapped up within a day. The judge said she did not believe the accusing girl would attack a man of his size which is pretty ridiculous and unfair. But it was really only an indictment as he could and did request a jury trial expunging the guiltly verdict.
The prosecutors in the jury trial dropped the case. They said they could not find her... while as we know she was traveling the country posting Instagram photos of herself vacationing in posh locations while spending the money he paid her. The prosecution did not actually need her to testify, but as they said, there were contradictions in her statements and the case was not strong enough for a trial.
I feel like in this case, the accusation is so horrible and the issue so sensitive that we don't bother looking at both sides of the story and rush to judgment.