Former UFC Champion Conor McGregor is headed out of the octagon to the big screen with an acting debut now set for the remake of a popular 1980s movie. Here are the details.
What Happened: McGregor is attached to join the remake of “Road House,” a movie that starred Patrick Swayze. The remake will feature Jake Gyllenhaal and is being made under the Prime Video umbrella from Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, as reported by Deadline.
Gyllenhaal will play a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a roadhouse in Florida in the movie. The details of McGregor’s character have not been announced.
The movie will be an Amazon Original Movie that will stream on Prime Video in more than 240 countries at the time of its release.
UFC is owned by Endeavor Group Holdings Inc EDR. McGregor is repped by WME, which is also owned by Endeavor.
McGregor watched the original movie and liked it, according to the report, which led to talks with the team making the movie.
McGregor holds a fighting record of 22-6-0 and last fought a UFC fight in July 2021. McGregor lost his title in 2018 to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
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Why It’s Important: McGregor has a large following on social media and is one of the most popular UFC fighters of all time. With his professional fighting career at a crossroads of retirement, boxing or moving on, the fighter has been a target of Hollywood.
The former UFC Champion’s fight with Nurmagomedov in 2018 was the top UFC PPV of all time with 2.4 million buys. A boxing match between McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Showtime, a unit of Paramount Global PARAPARAA, is the second biggest PPV fight of all time.
McGregor was previously rumored to get a role in the Warner Bros. Discovery WBD hit “Game of Thrones.”
McGregor was even pitched on being in the show after one of his fights.
“I’m banged up, my shin’s in a heap, I’ve been kicking his knee’s straight for 25 minutes, my leg’s in bits, and he’s trying to offer me a ‘Game of Thrones’ role,” McGregor said.
At the time, McGregor wanted to be in the fight business and not in “show business.”
McGregor has now hinted that he might be done with fighting, with a return to the UFC up in the air.
A shift to the movie and television business would follow the storyline of several former fighters and wrestlers.
Former UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre had a featured role as a villain in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” from Walt Disney Co DIS. St-Pierre later reprised his role in “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” on Disney+.
Several wrestlers from World Wrestling Entertainment WWE, including most famously Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, have transitioned to careers in Hollywood.
Photo: motorsports Photographer via Shutterstock
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