Channing Tatum (WireImage)
VIP Super Bowl fans saw Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum in what appeared to be a wild brawl Saturday with UFC champ Cung Le at Tatum’s New Orleans bar, Saints and Sinners.
About 50 people — including “Twilight Saga” star Ashley Greene and MTV babe Audrina Patridge — were partying in a VIP area when “heads swiveled” to see the two muscle-bound men locked in a “wrestling match.”
“They were putting each other in headlocks and chokeholds,” said a spy of the scene at the Big Easy bar.
Guests even moved to separate the pair, who were doing what one spy called a “series of scary jujitsu moves” before realizing the brawl was their idea of fun. “At the end of their match, the two gave each other a big bear hug, and everyone realized they are friends,” said a source.
Turns out People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” and Le are close pals from the 2009 street-mayhem opus “Fighting.” They even posed for a pic of Tatum putting Le in a complex chokehold while the UFC fighter and actor mugged.
Earlier, Tatum was seen at the bash in a black mask that looked like a prop out of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” And he strode up to a balcony to throw Mardi Gras beads down to fans below. Adding to the night’s beefcake action, a group of guys stripped down to their skivvies and grooved to music, to get his attention and beads.
Tatum was rolling solo in New Orleans, while his pregnant wife, Jenna, was back at home in LA.
Last week, the star of the autobiographical male stripper epic “Magic Mike” was in New York to pump Steven Soderbergh’s brainy pharmaceutical thriller, “Side Effects” with Jude Law and Rooney Mara, telling us, “I got to play someone who went to college for once,” before he did shots with pals at an after-party.
Le has gone on to star in this year’s “The Man With the Iron Fists,” directed by rapper RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. He’s next appearing at a gala this week to raise funds for the Bruce Lee Action Museum in Seattle.
A rep for Tatum had no comment.