Conor McGregor and Jake Gyllenhaal fight in trailer for Road House remake

The ex-UFC champion makes his acting debut opposite Gyllenhaal in the upcoming Amazon Prime film

Fans have gotten their first glimpse at Conor McGregor’s acting debut, after the trailer for Amazon Prime’s Road House was released on Thursday (25 January).

The remake of the 1989 action film, which starred Patrick Swayze, will be released on 21 March, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role and McGregor as an antagonist named Knox.

Upon the release of the trailer, former UFC champion McGregor took to X to write: “Fighting, acting, there’s nothing this Mac can’t do!

“Here’s the trailer featuring my brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, and me going toe-to-toe in the wildest action movie ever – Road House! My acting debut is gonna leave a mark! Long live Knox!”

In Amazon’s Road House, Gyllenhaal’s character Elwood Dalton is a UFC fighter-turned-bouncer. Gyllenhaal entered the Octagon at UFC 285 in March 2023 to film a scene for the movie, before sitting ringside with McGregor.

In the trailer for the movie, Knox can be seen entering the bar where Dalton works and smashing tables with a golf club. He is also seen headbutting Dalton and later fighting him.

Doug Liman, the director of the Road House remake, said this week that he will boycott the film’s premiere over Amazon’s decision for a streaming-only release. “The movie is fantastic, maybe my best, and I’m sure it will bring the house down and possibly have the audience dancing in their seats during the end credits. But I will not be there,” Liman wrote in the letter published by Deadline.

McGregor, 35, has not fought since July 2021, when he suffered a broken leg in his second straight loss to Dustin Poirier.

The Irishman is expected to return to the Octagon in June, after his fight with Michael Chandler was announced almost one year ago. The bout has faced numerous delays, with McGregor’s absence from the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) testing pool proving problematic.

The UFC has now parted ways with Usada and established a new drug-testing programme. The UFC has still not officially confirmed McGregor’s fight with Chandler, however.