Does Jason Statham Do MMA?

Jason Statham is without a doubt one of the greatest British actors of his generation. Having starred in some top action movies such as The Transporter, and the Fast and Furious franchise, the Englishman has been involved in fight choreography for most of his career. But can he fight for real?

The now 57-year-old has a rich history when it comes to martial arts from a very young age and it shows in his action movies. Because he is highly trained in multiple martial arts, Statham has been doing his own fighting scenes and stunts in his films for over two decades.

Statham is fully trained in various aspects of martial arts such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and Wing Chun Kung Fu. And while he has years of training in these disciplines, he has never officially competed in any professional tournaments. 

One thing he did compete in, however, was the 1990’s Commonwealth Games in New Zealand as a springboard diver.

Statham has trained with several professional MMA fighters in his earlier years of acting in order to improve his BJJ, kickboxing and Wing Chun skills and make those techniques look more realistic in his action movies.

How Well Would Jason Statham Do in the UFC?

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With Jason Statham being involved in several forms of martial arts from an early age, perhaps if mixed martial arts and the UFC was much bigger back when he was younger he would have chosen the path of being a professional MMA fighter. 

He certainly would've had a solid foundation to build off of. Statham was a natural athlete, given his Olympics history. He was living clean and putting in the hard yards to ensure he would be as lean as possible while still keeping that explosiveness for his springboard diving and swimming. That, in a way, is a very similar process to cutting weight in MMA, so he already had experience in that element.

Being highly trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu would've allowed Statham to have a clear advantage over most fighters back in the early 2000's in the UFC. Other than legends of Brazil such as Royce Gracie, BJJ was not well-known globally at that stage in MMA, and therefore anyone who was a master of that craft was able to use it effectively without opponents knowing how to nullify or counter it.

As well as having a plethora of knowledge on the ground, Statham trained in a couple of striking disciplines. One of those was kickboxing. Being a good kickboxer in MMA is always advantageous because this martial art allows a fighter to open up a wide range of strikes from different angles. For example, a calf kick or kick to the thigh to try and hinder the mobility of your opponent, a teep kick to the gut to try and wind your opponent, a roundhouse kick or front kick to the head to try and knock your opponent out. 

Additionally, Jason Statham knew how to fight in close quarters with the use of Wing Chun. A very rare form of Kung Fu, which the likes of Tony Ferguson mastered during his 12-fight unbeaten run, it teaches you how to parry shots or manipulate your opponents guard effectively whilst using the leverage and flow to attack them with strikes such as elbows, punches and knees.

Being adept in these three backgrounds would've been very interesting to see inside the octagon because Statham would've had all aspects covered: long and mid range striking, close quarter combat, as well as grappling, ground game and submissions.

Often in today's UFC, even the very best kickboxers are scared to utilise their strengths because they don't want their kicks to be caught by a strong grappler, which will see them be taken down. As seen more recently at UFC 306 between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili. However, Statham wouldn't have been hesitant to throw his kicks because he knew he had a solid BJJ game, so even if he was taken down, that would've played into his hands.