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The majority of the UFC’s stars would obviously describe themselves as fighters first and foremost, and their lives tend to gravitate around the sport of MMA. If they’re not competing in the Octagon they’re training for their next fight, and if they’re not in camp themselves, the likelihood is that they’ll be coaching or simply rehabbing injuries.
Sometimes though, the UFC’s biggest names step away from the sport to make appearances elsewhere. Everyone knows about the movie careers of the likes of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Randy Couture and Ronda Rousey, for instance, while Rousey, Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar are just three of the names to head into the world of pro-wrestling.
On the odd occasion though, it’s possible to see some UFC stars in pretty obscure places – be it music videos, movies or even popular TV shows. Here are 5 cameo appearances from UFC fighters that you may not have noticed before.
#1 Alistair Overeem – LMFAO’s Sexy And I Know It and Sorry For Party Rocking videos
While he’s seen largely as a veteran-slash-gatekeeper in the UFC’s Heavyweight division these days, a decade ago Alistair Overeem was one of the hottest fighters in the entire sport. 2011 was perhaps his biggest year; he was coming off a victory in the prestigious K-1 Grand Prix and was still holding the StrikeForce Heavyweight title, and of course, in the latter part of the year he signed with the UFC and debuted that December by beating Brock Lesnar.
It should come as no surprise then that it was during that period that ‘The Reem’ made a couple of cameo appearances in electronic dance-pop outfit LMFAO’s music videos. Sexy And I Know It, which was released in September 2011 and became a worldwide smash hit, was accompanied by a bizarre video showing various people – including singer RedFoo – lifting weights and dancing in Speedos. The video also features a random cameo from Overeem, who hardly seems impressed with RedFoo’s bicep curls.
The video for 2012’s Sorry For Party Rocking meanwhile features a wild house party being interrupted by an angry neighbour – and ends with another Overeem cameo. This time, the Dutchman appears as a party guest, who seems horrified when the neighbour’s wife – who has become involved in the party – decides to stroke his arm.
Overeem’s appearances are real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, but they still stand as an indication of his huge popularity in the early part of the last decade.
#2 Chuck Liddell – Nickelback’s Rockstar video
The music video for Nickelback’s Rockstar – which was a huge hit all around the world in 2007 – barely features the band; instead, it shows a series of people lip-synching along to Chad Kroeger’s vocals, which center around, naturally, wanting to be a rock star. The video features a number of celebrity cameos, from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons to ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Another of the cameos features none other than UFC legend Chuck Liddell.
‘The Iceman’ was probably at the peak of his fame at the time the video was released; he’d lost his UFC Light-Heavyweight title to Quinton Jackson in May 2007, a month or two before filming, but he was also still the UFC’s first true mainstream star, having coached on the original season of The Ultimate Fighter before main eventing the promotion’s biggest-selling pay-per-views to that point, including UFC 57 and UFC 66.
Liddell’s on-screen moments see him lip-synching to lyrics that state “I’ll even cut my hair and change my name” – touching his trademark Mohawk – and “hire 8 bodyguards who love to beat up a******s”, as well as a clip of him placing a man in a schoolyard headlock. It’s hardly Oscar-level acting, but the fact that ‘The Iceman’ was a big enough star to end up in a video with one of the world’s biggest bands is still remarkable considering MMA’s lower exposure at that point.
#3 Urijah Faber – Rampage (2018)
Plenty of UFC fighters have starred in movies over the years, from Randy Couture and Ronda Rousey being involved in the Expendables franchise to Quinton Jackson’s star turn as BA Baracus in 2010’s The A-Team. Former Bantamweight contender and UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber has not yet starred in any movies – but UFC fans may be unaware that he made a cameo in 2018’s Rampage.
The movie – which stars Dwayne Johnson and was based on the Midway video game from the early 1990’s – features a scene in which a mercenary team travel to a forest in Wyoming in an attempt to capture a mutated wolf known as ‘Ralph’, only to become human prey for the monster. One of those mercenaries? An almost unrecognisable Faber, sporting a Mohawk haircut that’s a million miles away from his usual floppy surfer-do.
‘The California Kid’ is visible for a matter of seconds before he falls victim to ‘Ralph’ – but he still has time for a single line, asking the leader of the mercenary team “are we playing this?” before all hell breaks loose. Even the most ardent UFC fan could be forgiven for missing his cameo, and to date he hasn’t appeared in any more movies.
#4 The Nogueira Brothers – The Expendables (2010)
Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables movie franchise was notable for bringing together the majority of Hollywood’s biggest action heroes from the 1980’s and the 1990’s, from Stallone himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren to Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li and Jason Statham. The franchise also brought UFC superstars Randy Couture and Ronda Rousey into the movie world, with the duo playing ‘Toll Road’ and and ‘Luna’ respectively.
While Couture and Rousey were given big parts in the movies, less attention was paid to the fact that the first movie – released in 2010 – also featured another two UFC stars in the form of Brazil’s Nogueira brothers.
The duo – identical twins Antonio Rodrigo and Antonio Rogerio – play a minor role as part of villain General Garza’s paramilitary crew on the fictional island of Vilena in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Stallone himself, the twins were cast while the movie was being filmed in Brazil; the actor was horrified when a casting call for possible soldiers produced nothing but “guys who looked like male models”, and instead turned to the brothers, who had the correct look that was needed for a movie full of tough guys.
#5 Tank Abbott, Bruce Buffer and Big John McCarthy – Friends (1997)
Friends was one of the world’s most enduring and popular sitcoms; centred around the lives of six friends – played by David Schwimmer, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt Le Blanc and Matthew Perry – the show ran from 1994 to 2004 with ten seasons, and was a massive part of pop culture throughout the decade.
The UFC on the other hand was hardly a popular entity during the same time period. Sure, the initial shows in the early 1990’s drew well on pay-per-view, but by the late 90’s, the sport of MMA had been damned as ‘human cockfighting’ by the likes of Senator John McCain.
That’s why it’s so surprising to look back and find that the third season of Friends actually had an episode practically centered on the UFC. Titled The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion, the episode follows Monica’s rich boyfriend Pete – played by Jon Favreau – and his “dream” of fighting in the Octagon.
The episode goes on to show Pete stepping into the Octagon at a UFC event – announced by Bruce Buffer – to face none other than Tank Abbott, a massive star in the promotion’s early days, in a fight refereed by ‘Big’ John McCarthy. Of course, Favreau’s character goes onto be destroyed – ending up in a full body cast.
Quite how the writers of Friends ended up running with an episode centered around what was at the time an obscure sport is anyone’s guess – but looking back over two decades later, it might be the first mainstream mention of the UFC!
