Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has made the transformation into an MMA fighter for his next movie role, but remains pretty realistic about his prospects in the cage.
Iconic professional wrestler and Hollywood actor Johnson is set to portray fighting legend Mark Kerr in the new biopic The Smashing Machine. For the part, he underwent a full fight camp style of preparation in order to know how to simulate fighting like a true Mixed Martial Artist.
However, when it comes to actually fighting, he seems to know on which side his bread is buttered. And last night while inducting Kerr into the Hall of Fame he paid tribute to the newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson admits he would be smashed easily by Tom Aspinall
On Thursday night, ‘The Rock’ made an appearance at the UFC Hall of Fame in order to induct Mark Kerr into the institution. He has been spending the last year embodying Kerr for his new film, and gave a touching speech honoring the MMA legend.
At one point, he even teased what might happen if he were to ever step into the cage. Johnson is a renowned WWE wrestler and an obvious athletic specimen, but has limited experience with actual martial arts training.
And he acknowledged such a fact as he admitted that current heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall would easily dispatch him if they fought. “I love the sport of MMA as you guys know the respect I have,” he explained.
“Coming out here and hearing my theme song I think ‘s—, imagine if I was an MMA fighter’. Like a UFC heavyweight coming out to my music, my theme song, right? That’s cool.
“Man, well I don’t know about that but I’d give it a shot – headline would read ‘Tom Aspinall knocks out The Rock in eight seconds’.”
‘The Rock’ had MMA ambitions in Pride during his early wrestling days
Johnson has been around the MMA world for years, and even claimed during a 2023 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience that he considered going to Pride during his early wrestling career. He was struggling to win over fans, and infamously had to ‘turn heel’ in order to make things work.
“1997, I was still going to LA and working out,” he told Rogan when asked about potentially fighting. “We were crossing all the MMA guys. PRIDE just opened up in Japan and I started seeing all these MMA guys going over to PRIDE.
“At that time, I was making $150,000 dollars wrestling 235 days a year. Do the maths on that and how much you’re making per match. We start hearing, ‘These guys in PRIDE are making $250,000, $350,000, $500,000.’
“I thought then, ‘F—, I don’t think I’m going to make it in WWE. People are booing me out of the arenas. I can’t be myself. They’re telling me to f—ing smile, I don’t want to f—ing smile. That’s not who I am.’
“I start talking to Ken Shamrock, I start talking with Mark Kerr, ‘tell me about PRIDE.’ I have this idea in my head ‘maybe I should train in MMA, go to PRIDE, and make real money and I don’t have to smile.’ I’m going to get f—ed up, knock one of my lungs loose.
“But if I find the right coach and train – I have this whole thing in my head. I’m talking to my wife at the time, ‘I think this is the way to go. I can make real money while these fans are booing me for $150 grand’.”