Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Antonio Silva is poised to make his motion picture debut next year.
As reported on Tuesday evening’s edition of UFC Tonight, “Bigfoot” will have a role in the action film The Scorpion King: The Lost Throne.
YES! @BigfootSilva is going to be in the new #ScorpionKing movie which starts filming this month and will be out next year.
— UFC Tonight (@UFCTonight) August 7, 2013
The Universal Home Entertainment production will be a straight to DVD/Blu-ray release in 2014 and will be shot in Romania, according to Moviehole, which does not make any note of Silva’s role in the film.
This is not the first time a fighter will appear in the franchise, as UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture played the main villain in The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, while The Ultimate Fighter alumnus Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson had a small role in The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption.
The Lost Throne is the fourth installment in The Scorpion King series, which starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the title character back in 2002.
Silva is 5-4 inside the cage since making his Strikeforce debut in late 2009, scoring crushing knockouts over Travis Browne and Alistair Overeem and losing convincingly to current UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez (twice) and contender Fabricio Werdum.
According to the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings, Silva remains as the fourth-best big man on the top 10 list.
Silva, who most recently lost his title bid against Velasquez at UFC 160 in May, does not currently have a fight lined up, though he has expressed an interest in settling the score with Thiago Silva, an ex-teammate and career light heavyweight.
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
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