Recent reports that actor, producer, musician and all round bad man, Idris Elba was in training to be a kickboxer pricked up the ears of us here at The Sprawl. File under “relevant to our interests” and colour us keen to know more. Luckily, we were able to call on our pal – head honcho at BCMMA, MMA athlete, and not-doing-too-bad-on-the-bad-
Far from simply being fuel for our man-crushes, it seems the impetus behind Elba stepping into the gym recently is that he’s preparing for a TV show to be screened in 2017. Although full details don’t seem to be available yet, the premise of the show is that he will train in various gyms and environments around the world before stepping up for a real-life kickboxing match. Despite some of those recent reports declaring that Elba would be partaking in a “no holds barred” fight, we suspect it’s unlikely to be.
So, where does Mason come into all this? “A friend from school who’s working with Idris knew he needed some sparring partners around my weight so he got in touch and set up some training.” Elba has been training with Double K gym boss, Keiran Keddle, who Mason tells us travels with Elba sometimes whilst he’s working to maintain the training schedule they’ve built up.
With Keddle renowned for his kickboxing training, Mason was brought in specifically to do drills and sparring. But how does the Luther actor stack up? Is he any cop? (LOL!) “His striking game is actually really impressive already,” Mason tells us, “He’s got big power and is an athletic tall guy but his technique is really sharp too. Idris is a fast learner and a competitive guy so he’s come along really fast.”
As many of us know, the best laid plans don’t always, well, go to plan. So, when the Hollywood A-Lister and part-time rapper steps up to fight for real, what are his chances of success? Pretty decent according to Mason.
“I think it’s impressive for a guy in his position to not only train like a fighter around his busy schedule but also more importantly put it all on the line and push his ego to one side to actually compete in a real fight where there is a real possibility that he could get hurt, stopped or whatever. He’s genuinely training for a REAL fight where his opponent is not going to fall over for him he is going to come in and try and take his head off! Not many Hollywood A listers that would put themselves in that situation and I think he has a really good chance of winning this fight.”
Whilst we might not be seeing Elba topping the bill at BCMMA anytime soon, Mason says he’ll extend an invite to him – but only as a spectator for now. And as for the chances of repaying the favour and helping Mason on to the Hollywood gravy train – would the Chelmsford-based athlete be up for it? “100% if the opportunity comes up! Maybe if they do a Snatch 2 then John [Maguire] could star!”
