As far as Mortal Kombat characters go, Cassie Cage is pretty fun. She chews gum, kicks ass, and takes selfies with the jawless corpses of her victims. She also bears an odd resemblance to UFC fighter Felice Herrig, something Herrig thinks is more than a coincidence.
Herrig, who fights on this weekend’s UFC on FOX 15 card, was first made aware of Cassie Cage a few months ago. Back then, she found the resemblance to be a bit odd, but she didn’t have a whole lot to go on.
In recent days, however, more footage and promo materials have surfaced, and Herrig doesn’t like what she sees:
She’s moved from bemused amusement to full-on suspicion that her likeness is being used without her permission, chalking it up to the fact that Cassie Cage has a similar face, blows a mean gum bubble, and positions herself as a selfie superstar (Herrig is somewhat notorious in the MMA world for taking a fuckton of selfies).
Granted, there’s still plenty of room for this to be a big coincidence. Those are some pretty specific screenshots and poses, and the Mortal Kombat team could’ve used any number of references to help bring them to life. I asked Mortal Kombat publisher Warner Bros for comment, but as of publish time they had yet to respond.
Whether the similarities are intentional or not, this is quite an example of art imitating life or life imitating art or life and art meeting somewhere in the middle and punching each others’ brains out. Still, I hope for the Mortal Kombat team’s sake that this is all just a big misunderstanding. Let us put it this way: I certainly wouldn’t want Herrig angry at me.
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