It seems there is a new trend- these days fighters want to be movie stars and are willing to forfeit their MMA careers to achieve their goal. Chung Li of Strikeforce relinquished his title due to movie commitments and Quentin “Rampage” Jackson pushed a fight in his hometown to film “The A-Team”. Other fighters like Roger Huerta and Randy Couture, have toyed with the idea of quitting, but have come back to the cage. Fighters can go months between fighting and training. They face a lot of downtime, and some stay in shape and some balloon. Need proof, Google pics of Chuck Liddell before “Dancing with the Stars”.
Is it worth cutting into training time to film a movie? Sometimes, a film can benefit a person and the sport, if it’s a good one. In “Rocky 3″ the beginning of the film pitted Rocky Balboa against a then unknown Hulk Hogan. The result was a huge spotlight thrown on WWE’s first PPV Wrestlemania, an event that is to this day the biggest event in wrestling. But, if you look at films like “Suburban Commando”, “See No Evil.”, or the ever brilliant cinematic masterpiece “Ready to Rumble”, it is hard to take the athlete or the sport seriously. Even though we all know wrestling is pre-determined, the athleticism is real.
But having Rampage in a major motion picture does speak volumes in how far MMA has come. Before, if anyone from UFC was in a film it was straight to DVD, now this film is getting a huge push and release. Rampage’s fight with Rashad Evans had to be pushed back in order for him to get the right training, but imagine if Rampage were to win the fight then go off to fight for the light heavyweight title around the same time his movie were to come out. The media coverage for the PPV would be astronomical with everyone from the Hollywood press to ESPN.
But alas, for right now Rampage has called it quits for fighting. Due to comments made by UFC president Dana White, Rampage has decided to hang up his gloves. I give it a few months when all will be forgiven on both sides.
Raul Rangel
Amidst the tons of talented fighters, celebrities and ex- athletes continue to plague both MMA and boxing. Turning professional is a big deal in these sports, but when big name, low rep people turn “pro” it tarnishes a growing and established sport. Taking nothing away from Herschel Walker and his accomplishments, I’ve been a Cowboys fan since I was knee high, but he is 48 and has a mental disorder. In his book he claimed to be suffering from multiple personalities. His signing to fight professional MMA is the wrong move in an organization that has a lot to prove. I feel bad for calling out Strikeforce so many times, because I actually like a lot of their fighters, but as an organization, they keep making moves that are questionable and have sunk other companies. In boxing we have seen many cases of wtf, such as Danny Bonaduce, Rodney King, Tonya Harding, etc… where does it end? With these people it ended on their back, in humiliation. Now, I’m not saying these people should never try MMA or boxing. I would prefer they would try out amateur fighting and help the up and coming guys get an audience. I would definitely watch Walker in an amateur match working with a guy that’s just honing his skills, rather than a professional beatdown.
-Raul Rangel