Conor McGregor was on his way to becoming a star in Hollywood as well as in the Octagon.
The Dubliner was on board to appear in Vin Diesel’s new film xXx: The Return of Xander Cage alongside Diesel himself and Samuel L. Jackson.
But as we know, ‘The Notorious’ backed out before shooting began on the xXx sequel to focus his attentions on his rematch with Nate Diaz.
It was British fighter Michael Bisping who stepped in to fill McGregor’s role as ‘Hawk’ in the film, which he was still filming just weeks before he took a short-notice rematch with rival Luke Rockhold and became UFC middleweight champion.
While you might think it could just be a bit-part role, as is often the case with UFC fighters in Hollywood films, McGregor revealed he was set to earn big money for his silver screen debut.
Conor McGregor says he turned down a role in new xXx movie that would have made him seven figures so he could focus on Nate Diaz rematch.
— Mike Johnston (@MikeyJ_MMA) August 5, 2016
That’s an eye-watering amount of money to turn down for anyone, but McGregor was pretty explicit with his reasoning for cutting short his acting career.
“I said I’ll do the film,” McGregor said during a UFC 202 conference call on Friday night.
“Then, after the (Diaz) fight, I rang him up and said, ‘I can’t go into this film because I need to focus and do what got me here in the first place.”
He continued: “Make no mistake, this one means a hell of a lot to me. This one means more than any amount of gold or money combined.
“I gave up a hell of a lot of money. I gave up opportunities — Hollywood opportunities — for this contest.
“I wanted to restrict media. I want to solely focus on this, so that should tell you how much this fight means to me and I’ve been preparing accordingly.”
He was asked if he regretted the decision to turn down the role in Vin Diesel’s film, which is set to be released next year.
“I need to get that win back and I need to go focus and do what got me here in the first place,” he said. “I disengaged from the film altogether.
“That was a seven-figure deal that I turned down to prepare for this fight. Bisping scooped up the role, he got it and that was that.
“I just let that go. This is more important to me. I said it before: I’m not in this for show business. This is the fight business I am in here and that’s all I’m trying to do here.”
He also cheekily suggested that Bisping should give him a slice of the xXx pay cheque though…
“I should get a cut of that. I didn’t even get a thank you. That was my role. I met with the guy before the Aldo fight.”
