XXX: The Return of Xander Cage isn't the only Hollywood blockbuster Conor McGregor turned down, Brendan Schaub has claimed.
Professional athletes and feature films have a chequered past, which makes complete sense when you think about it.
The vast majority of actors who spend their entire life honing their craft don't make it in Hollywood. So the odds of a sports star successfully making the transition from their chosen discipline to the big screen is slim to none. For every Jason Statham or Vinnie Jones, who've come from a sporting background and made a career in "
the arts," there's a billion awful cameos from athletes that just don't make the grade.
And when you're an MMA fighter, the odds become even slimmer.
Although Gina Carano has managed to break Hollywood, and you get the odd fighter like Tyron Woodley and Bas Rutten who've put in solid performances in major movies, it's hard to forget (or remember) Ronda Rousey in
Fast and Furious 7, Tito Ortiz in that dreadful sequel to
the Crow, Randy Couture in... well anything, and the list goes on and on.
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Although we've seen a lot of Conor McGregor pop up in video games, playing starring roles in
ad campaigns and reports that he's set to appear in the upcoming season of the smash-hit series
Game of Thrones, but we haven't seen too much of his acting chops.
There's a very good reason for that too - he's a bit busy with his fighting career. He
turned down a lucrative role in the new
xXx film to focus all his energy on getting that win back against Nate Diaz and the role was rewritten for UFC middleweight champion
Michael Bisping. However, that isn't the only major Hollywood film he turned down, as Brendan Schaub explained on the
Fight Companion for UFC Phoenix.
"He's not doing movies. He's not doing movies. When he's in the Expendables 19, we've got a problem."
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The former UFC heavyweight added that the movie roles McGregor was being offered were a lot bigger than that Vin Diesel testosterone-fueled thrill-ride, and he has an inside track through his agent.
"I had him on the show. I've had some meals with that dude. Very smart guy. He's been offered - and I know this from my agent - he's been offered some big time movies. Not this bullshit most fighters do, like legit stuff. He's like, 'No man, I can't right now.'"
"No, I'm not talking about (xXx: The Return of Xander Cage). I'm talking about some legit shit."
When he's making
that much money in the fight game, and is being linked to a PPV record-breaker crossover spectacle
against Floyd Mayweather, why would he bother sacrificing his peak athletic years to do some pretending on screen?
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