I know some guys that I consider to be proper hard. Army/Ex-army guys and experienced pub scrappers are, IMO, much more use in a real life fight than a martial arts expert or boxer.
I used to box, years ago like, and it gets you fit and teaches you to survive when hurt but it's not all that much use in a real fight.
Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like the martial arts experts always walk away. It's like they can only do it in class in their white jimmy-jams. When it kicks off for real they don't usually want to know. (IME)
I'm no hard man myself, in fact I've had my nose broken four times and had a couple of good pastings but I won't stand by and see something wrong happen; if it's necessary I'll fight pretty much anyone.
What really scares me is the idiots that carry knives or kick people in the head when they're out of it anyway. There's nothing 'hard' about that kinda stuff at all.