Brendan Loughnane is more excited than most about Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s recent social media activity.
The WWE legend and Hollywood superstar is currently training to portray two-time UFC champion Mark Kerr in a biopic called ‘The Smashing Machine’.
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Intent on doing Kerr and the sport of MMA justice, Johnson has started a training camp to learn several martial arts and make his performance believable.
The Rock has shared clips of him hitting pads and wrestling on social media.
Naturally, MMA fans are getting excited about the 52-year-old testing out his newly acquired skills in a real fight.
Loughnane is one of the people calling for The Rock to make his MMA debut, but only if he’s booked to fight a fellow professional wrestler.
The former PFL featherweight champion jokingly asked Adam Catterall during the latest episode of talkSPORT MMA’s Uncaged podcast: “Is he fighting for the BMF [title] then or what?”
He continued: "Do you want a fun fact about me? I reckon that the only reason I am a mixed martial arts fighter is because of The Rock.
“I grew up on The Rock and I didn’t even want to be an MMA fighter. I wanted to be a wrestler but then MMA just kind of fell along with it.
“Who didn’t want to be The Rock as a kid? The Rock was the man!
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“He was my hero. I really hope we get this man in the cage at some point. Or do I? Would I like to see him get beat? It’s a lot to learn.
“Put him in with another wrestler at least. Don’t be putting him in with an MMA fighter, please.”
Several WWE stars have transitioned to MMA over the years.
Brock Lesnar is the most famous of them. The wrestling legend beat Frank Mir, Randy Couture and Shane Carwin during a seven-fight career that included winning the UFC heavyweight title.
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Bobby Lashley put together an impressive 17-2 record in MMA, but he decided to return to the WWE eight years ago and hasn’t fought in the sport since.
Other wrestlers haven’t done so well. CM Punk was infamously dominated in back-to-back UFC fights against unknown prospects after changing sports in 2016.
Dave ‘Batista’ Bautista had one MMA fight in 2012 and although he scored a first-round TKO win, he didn’t look great against 22-26-1 journeyman Vince Lucero.
It is unlikely that The Rock will ever follow them into the MMA world.
Age, a lack of viable opponents and lucrative options elsewhere mean the closest Johnson will come to having a real fight is when he portrays Kerr on the silver screen.