Fans of the Harry Potter franchise got a chance to watch a whole cast of characters literally grow up before their eyes over the course of the films. Among them, we got to know Draco Malfoy and his fellow bullies, who would be nothing more than mere trivial obstacles standing in the way of Harry’s end game.
One of those thugs was Gregory Goyle, played by actor Joshua Herdman. If you are wondering what Herdman is up to these days, well, he’s still being a bit of a bully.
Herdman is now mixing it up in the world of mixed martial arts after making his MMA debut this past weekend in London. Herdman took on and defeated Janusz Walachowski from Poland in three rounds inside the cage. This was not some overnight transformation for Herdman of course. There was some extensive training for this following his stint on the big screen.
“I’ve been training traditional Japanese jujitsu for nearly five years and hold a shodan black belt,” Herdman revealed in a recent interview with Addicted OTR. “It’s raw, exciting and unpredictable. I find it more interesting than boxing although I appreciate the beauty and art in boxing. It also made sense to move onto MMA because of my jujitsu training.”
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Herdman does not think of his transition as a career change but understands why some might look at it that way. He says he still does some acting but he has passion for both acting and fighting.
“I obviously grew up around sport, looking at my Dad’s newspaper clippings as a kid, he taught us all how to fight from an early age, I also played rugby from about 6 – 13.” Herdman’s father was also a fighter and actor. Martin Herdman was a boxer and rugby player before transitioning into acting.
If they ever make another movie with the Harry Potter gang, everybody will know now to miss with the Slytherin gang as long as Herdman’s Goyle is in the bunch.