- Awesome, Dear Boy: The reason for Djimon Hounsou to do the film. He is a fan of mixed martial arts who had also wanted for a long time to play a "wise master with some demons" character like Roqua.
- The Cast Showoff: Djimon Hounsou used to practice boxing and kung fu during his life in France, and later trained sporadically MMA after becoming a fan of the sport in United States. In this film, he plays a badass MMA trainer with nice strikes.
- Cast the Expert: Several of Roqua's students and the Beatdown competitors were cast from local MMA gyms.
- Content Leak: Before the film's release, the raw footage
of the Capoeira fight was leaked and some sites advertised it as 'US soldier competing in a tournament'. - Dawson Casting: Most likely due to the movie's intense fighting sequences, almost all of the fighting characters, including Sean Faris (25), Cam Gigandet (25), and Neil Brown Jr. (27) were in their mid-20s despite playing high school students.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Djimon Hounsou trained with MMA and shootfighting champion Erik Paulson for the film.
- Sean Faris gained 15 lbs. of muscle for his role.
- Fake Nationality: Beninese-American Djimon Hounsou as Brazilian Jean Roqua.
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