UFC fighter Francis Ngannou to get beaten up by actor Vin Diesel in Fast And Furious 9

By Sam Barsanti | August 15, 2019 | 5:00pm

Aux Features Film

UFC fighter Francis Ngannou to get beaten up by actor Vin Diesel in Fast And Furious 9

Photo: Emmanuel Wong

Even before we knew that the male stars of the Fast And Furious movies had very specific limitations in their contracts about how many punches they’re allowed to take before throwing back the exact same number, the series had a suspicious streak of showing its stars easily holding their own against professional fighters. Obviously we all want to believe that professional street racer Dominic Toretto and his buddies are the toughest dudes in the history of dudes for some reason, but previous movies have made that a little too obvious with UFC fighters Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey joining the fray just to get outplayed or outmatched by the ol’ Family.

For Fast And Furious 9, the important role of “professional fighter who gets handily defeated” will be filled by Francis “The Predator” Ngannou, another UFC fighter who Deadline says is “#2 in the heavyweight division.” Also his nickname is The Predator, and it doesn’t seem to be because he has alien dreadlocks or thermal vision. We don’t know much else about Fast 9, including whatever its full title will be, but now we can say definitively that there will be a scene where one of the good guys will easily beat up this guy—unless, and this is a free idea for Vin Diesel, they establish some actual stakes by showing a tough villain easily beating up one of the heroes. Hobbs And Show kind of did that, but its villain was a robot superman, so it doesn’t count.