Kevin James is a comedian and actor best known for his role as Doug on CBS sitcom ‘King of Queens’ which ran for nine seasons. Besides being an actor, Kevin James is also known to be a rabid MMA fan and has even trained with some legends of the sport such as Randy Couture.
For his 2012 comedy film ‘Here Comes the Boom’ Kevin James took his MMA training up a few notches in order to make his role more believable. According to MMA trainer Ryan Parsons, James even sparred with professional MMA fighters such as Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller who has a role in the film as well.
In addition, former UFC Heavyweight champion Bas Rutten sang James’ praises as well saying that “He’s got a lot of talent. He picks up things really fast.” Bas even goes on to say that Kevin James’ mitt work is better than 70-80 per cent of professional fighters. Also, many of the MMA notables involved in the film remarked at how fast and powerful James’ punching is.
The following YouTube video shows some of the training footage Kevin went through as well as some outtakes towards the end of the video. They wanted the fight scenes to be as realistic as possible, and many of the shots that were supposed to miss made it through.
ABOUT HERE COMES THE BOOM (2012)
“In the comedy Here Comes the Boom, former collegiate wrestler Scott Voss (Kevin James) is a 42-year-old apathetic biology teacher in a failing high school. When cutbacks threaten to cancel the music program and lay off its teacher (Henry Winkler,) Scott begins to raise money by moonlighting as a mixed martial arts fighter. Everyone thinks Scott is crazy – most of all the school nurse, Bella (Salma Hayek) – but in his quest, Scott gains something he never expected as he becomes a sensation that rallies the entire school.” [Source: RottenTomatoes]
