Exclusive! Paul Allica on his prep for the ass kicking film The Trigonal!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Have you heard of THE TRIGONAL yet? You will now. This hardcore and brutal martial arts film brings together fighters from the UFC, Tae Kwon Do Olympians, Wushu Gold Medalists and Muay Thai World Champions to give us a fiesta of butt whooping!

Here's the story line: An underground fighting circuit run by an international crime syndicate invades a retired MMA champion's small, idyllic island hometown. Syndicate thugs brutally assault his wife and kill his best friend, leaving him with no other choice but to fight for justice.

Star PAUL ALLICA who plays James Lowe, the "Ivan Drago" villain of the film, gave us a bit of insight as to how he went about prepping for the physically demanding role – read his take below and scroll down for some pics and the badass trailer!

“James Lowe is an interesting character. A villain and opponent to hero Jacob Casa in the ring. I was drawn to the character because even though he’s a loudmouth and an antagonist, he’s also charming and likeable under the hard exterior. There’s layers to the guy and I had a lot of fun with the incessant smack talking ring side.

I was told from the outset that James was the villain in the underground illegal ring fights. I would need to rip up and only had a few weeks between being cast and shooting. I’ve never trained so hard in my life. Early each morning I did an hour of fasted cardio plus an hour of boxing to help me lean up on top of a heavy weight regime. I had to be extremely strict with my diet and I used old school bodybuilding dehydration to drop water weight before the fight. Doing this was really taxing as it makes you foggy and lethargic and to then fight at full intensity was a big challenge.

We thought we would finish our fight in one night but it ended up taking three full nights – many days apart. This meant I had to quickly water load after each shoot and then cut water weight again – I don’t recommend it! Ian Ignacio (who plays the hero) and I worked our asses off in rehearsals to make sure we were both happy with the final fight’s choreography – we both had high standards and put in hours and hours to get it right.

At one point in the fight weapons are discarded and it becomes an all out brawl MMA style. I hadn’t done much grappling but Ian showed me the ropes and we drilled it until it looked brutal. We became and remain great friends but as soon as the camera’s were rolling we forced ourselves into adversaries and I must say it's rare you can trash talk a Tae Kwon Do Champ to his face and not have them knock your lights out!

THE TRIGONAL is written and directed by Vincent Soberano and it hits Philippines cinema on September 26th and worldwide soon after.