Kevin James Packs a Punch

In Here Comes the Boom (opening Friday), the former King of Queens plays a high school science teacher who takes it on the chin (and elsewhere) all the way to the Octagon to win enough in purses to save the school's music program.

A longtime MMA fan, you've been training with fighting legend Bas Rutten for 15 years?

Not consistently. That's the problem. I say, "O.K., I'm going to take eight months off and I'll be at Taco Bell. I'll see you when I get back."

But Taco Bell was out when you started prepping for Boom?

Yes, training for this movie, we had to get real. I ate and trained like a fighter.

Did you ever think about taking a real fight for fun?

The reason that wouldn't happen is because it wouldn't be fun. I'd be on my back, rolling around in a puddle of sweat and disrespect.

We have to ask. If you could fight anybody, dead or alive, who would it be?

My own ego.

PHOTO

TRACY BENNETT (JAMES)