In 2011, Michael Jai White made his directorial debut with “Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown“. Recruiting the talents of fight choreographer Larnell Stovall, real-life MMA fighters Scottie Epstein and Todd Duffee, and squeezing in a cameo with Lyoto Machida.
The film proved highly popular with martial arts movie fans and MMA lovers alike, but if you thought that was the end of that particular MMA saga, guess again!
On August 20th news of “Never Back Down 3” began to circulate online. Normally, this would fall under the classification of a rumor or online chatter, except for the fact that it surfaced from White’s own Facebook page with the following image and caption:
“From Never Back Down II, standby for news of Never Back Down III”
And it gets better! White further teased fans via Facebook on August 26th with the following:
“I guess you might call this ‘Never Back Down Generations”
The man to White’s left in that photo is Djimon Honsou, who fans of the series will remember from his portrayal of the MMA coach Jean Roqua in the original “Never Back Down”. Evan Peters was notably the only cast member of the first film to reprise his role for the sequel. Will the series third installment unite the cast of parts one and two for the Ultimate Beatdown? Time will only tell, but it’s safe to say that “Never Back Down III” is on its way! Let’s just hope that, in addition to the series incredible MMA action, the band behind the second film’s heart racing soundtrack are coming back, as well!
