Oleksandr Usyk’s monumental month of May continued with the news that boxing’s undisputed heavyweight champion has been cast in the upcoming A24 biographical film The Smashing Machine, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as former UFC champion Mark Kerr.
Deadline broke the news Friday that Usyk, a 2012 Olympic gold medallist boasting 22-0 pro record, is set to portray fellow Ukrainian combat sports legend Igor Vovchanchyn in the project.
Usyk’s star power has never been as prominent as it is currently with the 37-year-old fresh off a memorable split decision victory over Tyson Fury which resulted in him becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champ in nearly a quarter century. Usyk was previously credited for having a small role as “professional boxer” in a 2016 Ukranian movie called Pravilo boya, but The Smashing Machine will mark his first prominent acting role.
The film, which began production earlier this year and is scheduled to be released at some point in 2025, reportedly takes place primarily during the year 2000. Vovchanchyn was a Pride FC star and pioneer of early mixed martial arts from the 1990s. Kerr and Vovchanchyn competed against one another at Pride 12: Cold Fury in December of that year.
Kerr was a 1992 NCAA Division I wrestling champion and four-time ADCC submission grappling world champion but gained worldwide notoriety by becoming a two-time UFC champion in 1997, winning the UFC 14 and UFC 15 heavyweight tournaments. His nickname during his fighting career was “The Smashing Machine.”
The 55-year-old is getting a writing credit on the upcoming fictional film, according to IMDB. Kerr was previously the subject of a 2002 documentary titled The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr.
Johnson shared a nearly unrecognizable still image of himself as Kerr earlier in the week.
The film is being directed and co-written by Benny Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers who are known primarily for 2017’s Good Time and their 2019 critically acclaimed sports gambling flick Uncut Gems that starred Adam Sandler plus NBA Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett as a fictionalized version of himself. Both of those movies are among the A24 collection.
A24 is the same production/distribution company that produced 2023’s The Iron Claw, which was a biographical interpretation of the tragic real-life story of professional wrestling’s Von Erich family. (Opinionated sidenote: Zac Efron deserved to be nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Kevin Von Erich!)
A24 also produced the 2023 sports documentary Stephen Curry: Underrated.
The Smashing Machine co-stars Emily Blunt alongside Johnson — the Jungle Cruise reunion we’ve all been waiting for — and the movie also features former two-weight Bellator champ Ryan Bader in the cast.
Bader announced earlier in the month he will be taking a break from his MMA training for roughly three months while filming is ongoing in Vancouver. Bader has been cast to play former UFC champion and Hall of Famer Mark Coleman, who also competed at UFC 14 and was a star in Pride during Kerr’s time fighting for the now-defunct Japanese promotion.
“Excited to be a part of an amazing project by Benny Safdie #thesmashingmachine,” Bader wrote. “Giving ode to a couple legends of the sport, (Kerr, Coleman) the highs and the lows that come with this crazy ass sport.”
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