Goyle from the 'Harry Potter' movies is an MMA fighter now

Trust one of Draco Malfoy's former cronies to make a career out of hand-to-hand combat.

Joshua Herdman, who played Slytherin student Gregory Goyle in the Harry Potter films, made his MMA debut in London last weekend. Herdman beat Poland's Janusz Walachowski after three rounds of cage fighting.

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 “I’ve been training traditional Japanese jujitsu for nearly five years and hold a shodan black belt," Herdman explained in an interview. "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.”

Herdman's father Martin was a boxer and rugby player who eventually pursued acting, so his sons grew up around athleticism as well as art. Herdman himself has a five-year-old son.

"He is quite casual about me fighting really," Herman said. "He is used to me being at training all the time and coming home with bruises and marks. He seems quite interested in the cage itself, again I don’t think it quite registers yet.

"I don’t see it so much as a career change," Herdman said of the shift from acting to fighting. "I still act and am passionate about both acting and fighting."

Unlike many of his costars, Herdman has done less acting after the eight Harry Potter films. 

"I haven't fallen out of love with it, I still have an agent and still go for auditions," he said. "It's just a little bit like playing the lottery for a living."

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