Vladimir VladisavljevicUFC was growing throughout the years, so it led to the greater popularity of fighters.
It caught the attention of the movie industry, which invited the best of the best to act in fighting scenes.
But later it transitioned from stunts and fighting scenes to head roles, so today, there are even movies where you watch the UFC name most of the time.
The majority of the UFC fighters have never seen the movie or acted in one or two fighting scenes of a tele novella.
But OctagonRadar is going to focus on the most popular movies where UFC fighters starred. Please keep reading and enjoy the list!
These are the greatest movies with UFC fighters in lead and secondary roles:
Fight Valley (2016)
UFC stars: Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg
Tori Coro (Chelsea Durkalec), the 22-year-old girl, gets involved in an underground fighting ring. Her beaten body was found battered in the woods. There are rumors that she died in Fight Valley, a place where fighters go to make money in illegal fights.
Windsor (Susie Celek) trains with a former fighter Jabs (Miesha Tate), who prepares to piece up Tori’s killer Church (Cris Cyborg). The two fight at the end of the movie.
Holly Holm appears in the role of Payton Walsh, a respected fighter who fought Jabs (Miesha Tate). Despite showing mercy and not finishing her when ending up on the canvas, Jabs takes her gloves off and sucker punches Walsh after her victory, which leads to an all-around scuffle.
You can see two more UFC fighters in this movie – Amanda Serrano and Katlyn Chookagian.
Here Comes the Boom (2012)
UFC star: Bas Rutten
Bas Rutten used to be a UFC champ, but he has never lacked in acting skills. In this movie, Bas plays the role of Niko, the Dutch fitness instructor and former mixed martial artist who retired due to severe injuries.
When the school plans to terminate an extracurricular activity due to a “lack of funds” (later was found out that a clerk was stealing the school money), the biology teacher Scott Voss (Kevin James) decides to earn money by fighting inside the Octagon.
After losing the first fight via knee ko, he makes a deal with Niko to help him learn the USA citizenship questions in an exchange for the MMA knowledge.
Along the way, Scott Voss beats many fighters (Cung Le and Chael Sonnen also appear) under the guidance of Niko (Bas Rutten).
Joe Rogan offers a UFC fight to Voss, impressed by his sacrifice, but Niko rejects it. After a short argument, Rutten allows the fight, but Scott gets the news from school that his money was robbed, and the clerk was put in prison.
Scott has to beat Ken “The Executioner” Dietrich (Soszynski) in the UFC battle to save the school’s extracurricular activities.
For the first two rounds, Voss was getting tagged and battered, but guided by Niko instructions, he started to prevail in the third. After a submission switch attempt from Dietrich, Voss slammed him hard to set himself free out of the triangle choke and won the fight via superb slam. Knockout victory!
The victory over Ken Dietrich brings him $50k. Voss successfully raised money to prevent extracurricular activities from being axed at his cash-strapped school.
Furious 7 (2015)
UFC star: Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey has been the most dangerous girl on the planet for a long time. The former UFC bantamweight champion and a current WWE star are very famous for the movie “Furious 7” (also known as “Fast & Furious 7”).
Ronda acts in the role of Kara, the head of the security of Abu Dhabi millionaire. Her clash with Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) is one of the best fighting scenes in the history of female movies.
The two trade everything they have, “Rowdy” drags the fight to the canvas, gets back up, and trades violent punches, kicks, and takedowns.
The fight lasts way longer than the majority of female film bouts, and the creativity of both actors is insane.
Rodriguez was left bruised and battered after the scene, but the number of views was insane. Ronda has never been an elite UFC striker, but her acting skills rock!
Note: the fight ended in a draw, as both girls fell off the balcony and broke the table!
The Expendables
UFC star: Randy Couture
Paring tons of stars in one movie usually leads to a disaster. If you watch soccer, you probably remember the Barcelona team from 1998. They had tons of stars, and some reserves were in the first lineup of the Spanish national team, but they didn’t win the European title.
Guess what? The film didn’t receive much of a positive critical response. Two more remakes were made, but only “The Expendables 2” got a bit better grades.
The headliners of this movie are some of the best stars of the 80’s and 90’s – Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jason Statham.
Yet, Couture has seen pretty much of screen time, considering that his primary profession was “mixed martial artist”.
He participated in some movie fights and we’ve seen some great throws and tricky punches on his end.
In this movie, his character is called “Toll Road”, a soldier ready to go on missions for money.
The A-Team (2010)
UFC star: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
“Rampage” Jackson was famous for howling like a wolf before the fight and brutal slams and pressure inside the cage.
He participated in a few movies, but his greatest role happened in the 2010 blockbuster adaptation of the classic TV show from the ’80s, called “The A-Team”. We’ve seen some top-notch fighting skills from Rampage.
Jackson joined a stellar cast alongside popular characters Hannibal (Liam Nelson), Face (Bradley Cooper), and Murdock (Sharlto Copley).
Generally, the movie is about four Iraq War vets who help innocent people while on the run because of the crime they didn’t commit.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
UFC star: Georges St-Pierre
GSP might have never been the big star of an action film, but he does appear in the early stages of “The Winter Soldier” movie, where he acts in the role of villain Georges Batroc.
Captain America (Chris Evans) infiltrates a hijacked military ship to save hostages, and the famous fighting scene between GSP and Evans happens early in the movie, where St-Pierre shows his trademark combo (leading Superman plus leg kick) on many occasions, and rolls with Evans on the ground.
Small note: Batroc the Leaper, also known as Georges Batroc, has already appeared as a mid-level villain in Marvel Comics, so there’s a chance to see the French-Canadian superstar in future Marvel project movies roles.
The King of Queens
UFC stars: Randy Couture, Frank Trigg, Dan Henderson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
All right, we’ve seen four UFC fighters in one movie, they didn’t get the head roles for sure. Yet, this might be the most famous scene ever recorded by many UFC fighters at one spot.
Their fighting skills came to fruition in the scene where they meet Kevin James’ (Doug) gang. Of course, Kevin tries to punch “Hendo”, but then Henderson laughs and removes his artificial teeth.
The battle inside the bar lasts very shortly, as the UFC fighters easily deal with ordinary people.
Rampage carries his victim outside of the bar in Ricardo Arona style, Frank Trigg finishes the bout via knees and punches to the head of the grounded opponent.
Henderson throws the opponent and foot stomps him for the finish, while Randy Couture shows his Lethwei knowledge by headbutting Kevin James (Doug) and sending him to the ground.
Overall, a great scene! It reminds you what might happen when you mess with the UFC fighter inside the bar.
Conclusion
The UFC’s popularity has grown significantly in the last few years, so the ex and now-UFC names are getting more and more roles in important movies, so this list might change in the days to come.
Yet, we’ve never seen a UFC fighter getting the main role in the movie, which is understandable, as they must focus on training sessions, advancing on the division ladder, and winning a belt.
Did you enjoy our list of movies starring UFC fighters? Would you like to add some Hollywood creations here? Did Octagon Radar miss a movie from your favorites?
