TOM Brady’s trip to Australia took a surprising turn when he started playing ball with a UFC champion.

The NFL icon, 46, is in Melbourne for the first leg of his two-stop tour of the nation.

Brady enjoyed ‘hanging with the locals’ in AustraliaCredit: Instagram
And he was surprised by UFC champion Alex Volkanovski in the crowd.

The Australian featherweight, 35, stood up and joined the quarterback on stage at his ‘An Evening With Tom Brady’ event.

Volkanovski caught a pass from Brady on the stage, but the quarterback wasn’t content.

He said he wanted to make it a bit harder for the MMA fighter and sent him back to the arena floor.

The bout for the Featherweight Championship will be the headline contest at UFC 298 in Anaheim, California.

Brady, meanwhile, will host his next event in Brisbane on Sunday.

He also shared a photo on Instagram feeding a kangaroo and added the caption: “Hanging with locals.”

The seven-time Super Bowl champion will join Fox Sports later this year in a 10-year, $375 million to work on their NFL coverage.

The former NFL quarterback poses with a Melbourne Victory jerseyCredit: X/gomvfc

Brady is in Australia for a two-night tour