The Top MMA Fighters Turned Movie Stars

Share on Facebook posted 01-11-11 by Max Tedaldi

The relationship between actors and musicians has always been a slightly incestuous affair. Successful actors yearn for the adoration of millions of screaming fans at rock concerts, and successful musicians are always looking to the big screen to broaden their appeal. Meet the new breed of celebrity looking to break into the acting game.

Capitalizing on the ever-increasing popularity of mixed martial arts, MMA fighters are beginning to take acting gigs in droves. Forrest Griffin, Georges St-Pierre, Tito Ortiz, Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine, Bob Sapp, and Oleg “The Russian Bear” Taktarov have all appeared on-screen in the last few years. These are the biggest acting gigs secured by MMA fighters to date, in some surprisingly mainstream, blockbustery films.

Cung Le and Pandorum

The Vietnamese kickboxer and MMA champion has already had roles in three relatively large motion pictures. Fighting, Pandorum, and Tekken were all released in the past couple years and many MMA fans have begun to question the star’s dedication to the sport. Cung recently signed on to star in Dragon Eyes, which is a current remake of the Kurosawa classic Yojimbo. Although after avenging his only loss to date against Scott Smith at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum, how much more does he really have to prove?

Quinton Jackson and The A-Team

Former Pride and UFC champion Rampage Jackson has starred in Confessions of a Pit Fighter, Miss March, Bad Guys, The Midnight Meat Train, and the 2010 summer blockbuster The A-Team. Jackson is also set to star in the upcoming, slightly smaller film, Duel of Legends, with Shang Tsung himself Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. His performance hasn’t dropped off too much since spending less time inside the ring to dedicate to his moonlighting craft. Only time will truly tell. His UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida, bout ended in a split decision, so his next fight at UFC 130 on May 28th against Thiago Silva should be a pretty good indicator of where his career is headed.

Randy Couture and The Expendables

Captain America’s switch to film makes perhaps the most sense of anyone on this list on the list. No matter what some fanatics may say (sorry to break some MMA diehard’s hearts) but the guy is old. Sure he has proven his detractors wrong on more than one occasion, but at some point time is going to catch up to “The Natural”. If he were to stop now he would finish his career with three wins in a row, one of those being a shocking victory over Brandon Vera. Couture’s biggest credits include the Mamet film Red Belt, the title role in The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior, and one of this past summer’s biggest films The Expendables. Finish on top Randy, and ride The Expendables franchise for as long as possible.

Gina Carano and Knockout

Perhaps the most renowned female fighter in MMA, Carano is equal parts beauty and beast. Before her loss to Cristiane Santos last summer she was undefeated. Carano was Crush on the 2008 reboot of the popular American Gladiators television show, and is set to be in perhaps the biggest film to date to actually star an MMA fighter. Directed by Steven Soderburg, Knockout which was recently retitled Haywire, has an intimidating cast (Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas) with Carano headlining the bill.

Chuck Liddell and Dancing With the Stars

Okay! Fine! I included this one for the lulz. Liddell prematurely put too many of his eggs in the acting basket . Can we completely blame his three consecutive loses to this? Probably not but it certainly didn’t help. His biggest acting roles to date? A Blade TV show that was never picked up and a role on season 9 of Dancing With the Stars. Poor Iceman.