Vin Diesel discusses Michael Bisping replacing Conor McGregor in ‘xXx’

Earlier this year, it was revealed that UFC superstar Conor McGregor would be making the transition to Hollywood for a role in the next highly anticipated installment in the ‘xXx’ franchise, ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’.

Those plans changed back in March however, when Rafael dos Anjos withdrew from his scheduled UFC 196 lightweight title fight with Conor McGregor just two weeks before they were scheduled to fight. The UFC decided to replace dos Anjos with Nate Diaz, and move the fight to welterweight. As the sporting world knows by now, Diaz rocked and then submitted McGregor in the second round, handing the Irish superstar his first loss in the UFC.

Following the loss, McGregor cancelled his scheduled appearance in ‘xXx’ in order to focus solely on returning to the Octagon and avenging his loss to Diaz. While it would be seven months until McGregor and Diaz met in the Octagon for the second time, when they did, McGregor avenged his UFC 196 loss as he picked up a majority decision win.

With McGregor cancelling his appearance in xXx, Diesel opted to use UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping as a replacement for McGregor.

In a recent interview on Brazilian TV, Vin Diesel discussed the change in actors from McGregor to Bisping:

“I wanted to have an English accent in the movie,” Diesel said. “I had created a role for Conor McGregor and after he lost to Nate Diaz, he had to go to a dark place, he had to go get his manhood back to fight the second time, so he wasn’t able to do this film at the time.

“But I needed that accent, I wanted this English accent to be speckled in the movie. But I also wanted someone that could do fight sequences. A lot of the UFC guys do great fight sequences in movies. You saw when I put Gina Carano in 6, and Ronda Rousey in 7. I had great experiences when putting UFC fighters in the movie, so I wanted someone that had that English accent, they talk like this, and I got Michael Bisping to come and do that.”