Kickboxer, the 1989 movie that helped launch the career of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, has been slated to be remade for a while now. Featuring former UFC star Georges St. Pierre, who recently appeared as Bartroc the Leaper in Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and WWE star Bautista, coming off a much-talked about turn as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy (and having just been announced as part of the new Bond movie), the flick already had some serious heavyweights from the fighting world. Well, add one more - the former face of women's MMA Gina Carano. Carano, per The Hollywood reporter, is playing a fight promoter in the film that follows a kickboxer heading to Thailand to avenge his brother's death. Bautsita plays the antagonist of the piece; Jean-Claude Van Damme also returns. Alain Moussi, a stunt performer turned actor who worked on X-Men: Days of Future Past, plays the titular role. Carano's name has been in the news frequently in recent months, tied most often to the UFC, where Dana White once insisted that the promotion would sign her. Women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is very interested in fighting the former women's MMA star out of respect for her trailblazing in the early days, and even went so far as to state she would fight up in weight for Carano. The bout would probably be the biggest money-maker the UFC could book for Rousey at this point. However, negotiations with Carano's camp seemingly came to a stand-still earlier this year, and she has joined several projects in the film world since then, Kickboxer being the most recent. She previously appeared in films such as Haywire and Fast And Furious 6. An additional wrench in the works for her UFC debut came when Scott Coker took over the reigns at Bellator MMA, the UFC's main competitor. Coker and Carano have a solid relationship from Strikeforce and EliteXC, and with Bellator recently adding a 145lb women's division (Carano's natural weight, and a division the UFC does not have), the promotion represents an alternate possibility for the star. However, with the new movie deal, we may not see Carano back in the cage for a while - if at all.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
