Director: Frank Coraci (The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer)

Starring: Kevin James (King of Queens, Grown Ups), Henry Winkler (Happy Days, The Waterboy), Salma Hayek (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn), Bas Rutten and Mark Dellagrotte.

As MMA grows and becomes more accepted by the public, it was just a matter of time before we saw the “sporting comedy” genre try its hand at MMA. The result is a funny, heartwarming movie both MMA fans and comedy fans will like.

The story follows Scott Voss (James) as a school teacher who takes on a fighting career in MMA in order to raise money for his school and to win the heart of fellow teacher Bella (Hayek). Following a meeting about the schools troubles, Voss views the UFC one night and hears how much the losing fighter got paid. He decides then that he could lose too but his wrestling skills can help him, even though he last wrestled 20 years ago.

Voss acquires the help of Niko (MMA hero Rutten) and Mark Dellagrotte (as himself) and eventually turns himself into a half decent fighter. We follow his journey from the “bottom level” MMA shows leading to an opportunity to fight in the UFC in the climax fight against MMA bad boy Ken Dietrich (Krzysztof Soszynski). This is where you may roll your eyes but it is a fight on the undercard of a UFC.

The fight scenes are funny and include some pretty cool camera angles that give an insight into what it is actually like to be in certain situations. Kevin James also acted as a writer for the movie and is also a massive MMA fan, as a result the movie never takes itself too seriously but stays true to the sport of MMA. Bas Rutten turns in a funny performance that will have MMA fans smiling from start to finish.

MMA watch: Wanderlei Silva, “Mayhem” Miller, Chael Sonnen, Mark Munoz, Herb Dean, Joe Rogan, Mike Goldberg, Bruce Buffer, Stitch.

I give this movie a rating of 7/10.