Alan Cumming Thinks He Can Beat Drake—‘I Could Take You’

Alan Cumming may be known for his work in theater and superhero films, but the Scottish actor holds a long-standing belief that he could handle hip-hop superstar Drake in a boxing ring.

Alan Cumming Calls Drake as the Easiest Target in the Ring

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the three-time Emmy winner reflected on his past training regimen, noting that he used boxing and intensive core workouts to stay conditioned for physical roles. During that period, his coach, Mo, arrived at the gym visibly frustrated after reviewing a music video where several mainstream hip-hop artists were sparring on camera.

“Mo was like this, and I said, ‘What’s wrong, Mo?'” Cumming recalled. “He said, ‘Oh, I’m just pissed off because there’s this new video… It’s got all these rappers in it and they’re all doing boxing. They’re all pretending to be boxing’.”

When Cumming pressed for details, the coach blasted the musicians’ mechanics, singling out one artist in particular for having the most flawed technique on screen.

“I said, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with that?’ And he said, ‘They’re terrible at it. They’ve got terrible technique,'” Cumming told Fallon. “And I said, ‘Who’s the worst?’ And he went, ‘Drake’. And I went, ‘Oh, is he really?’ And he went, ‘Yeah, you could take Drake’.”

The offhand assessment stuck with the actor, permanently shaping how he views the Grammy-winning musician whenever their paths cross in pop culture.

“So, every time I see Drake, I think, ‘I could take you,'” Cumming laughed, joking to Fallon that he hopes the rapper hasn’t improved his form over the years.

While a celebrity crossover bout remains purely theoretical, Cumming continues to credit those early gym sessions for his enduring physical flexibility, which came in handy when performing his own stunts opposite younger crew members on major franchise sets, most recently for the Avengers: Doomsday.