Oleksandr Usyk will be the next athlete to appear in a blockbuster film as he prepares to star alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the upcoming film. The Ukrainian boxing hero will appear on the silver screen in the upcoming film “The Smashing Machine”, in which he will play the role of an MMA star.

Also starring Hollywood actress Emily Blunt and MMA star Ryan Badder, the newly crowned unified heavyweight world champion will take on the role of compatriot Igor Vovchanchyn. The film, scheduled for release in 2025, is a major departure from Usyk’s usual guise, following in the footsteps of fighter Conor McGregor, who also made his acting debut this year.

This unexpected development comes as Usyk basks in the glory of his triumph over Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia that made history. As the first star in his weight class to unify the titles since Lennox Lewis at the turn of the century, his tenure as a four-belt holder will be brief, however.

This is because “The Cat” will soon be stripped of his IBF belt, which will also happen after the British Boxing Control Board suspends it until June 2. Although no official reason for this call was given, it is likely due to the broken jaw he suffered in the fight with Fury.

Either way, it seems Usyk won’t be too concerned about the decision after confirming he’s looking forward to a break following his intense preparations for the era-defining fight on May 18. After defeating Fury, he confessed: “I don’t want to think about boxing right now. My camp started in September 2023 and I worked for nine months.

“I missed Ecstatic Recent Year, I missed my son’s birthday, I missed my other son’s birthday, I missed my daughter’s birthday and then my daughter’s birth. I also missed family holidays. I was only focused on this fight. Now I’m “I’m ecstatic and I want to go home.”

However, he made a telling statement, confirming he wanted a break before the rematch at the end of the year, and added: “We will return to our families and I will see him again in October. come back, rest. I think I won this fight, but I’m not going to sit there and cry and make excuses. We will repeat it in October.

Similarly, promoter Frank Warren confirmed that his client is looking for another fight with the man who handed him the first defeat of his professional career. He said: “When the fight happened, there was a rematch clause. It was a condition demanded by the people who invested in this fight, so if Tyson wants it, and he said he wanted it, then it will happen.” start doing.

“But I told him to come out… he had six months in training camp. During this time, he spent three weeks with his family. I told him to go and enjoy his family, sit down and then come back. According to the contract, it’s there and if he wants to come back and do it, that’s fine.

Taking Warren’s advice, Fury said: “I’ll go home, get something to eat, have a few beers, spend some time with my family, walk the dog, go to the clue. I’ll regroup and then me and (promoter) Frank Warren will talk about what’s going to happen in the future. I’ll talk to my wife and kids and see what I want to do. If there’s another fight in October, well, Rock’n Roll Sally up!”

The long-awaited rematch will be the main event promoted by Matchroom this Saturday night, as super lightweight rivals Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall fight it out again over twelve rounds at the First Direct Arena in Leeds.

Live coverage of the Taylor vs. Catterall match DAZN worldwide and on ESPN+ in the US.

This is a far cry from their original meeting, however, as Taylor (19-1, 13 KO) entered the February 2022 clash with Catterall (28-1, 13 KO) holding all four major belts at 140 pounds.

The Scot became the IBF world champion in the semi-finals of the World Boxing Super Series in 2019, and in the final he defeated Regis Prograis and won the WBA “super” crown and the Muhammad Ali trophy.

After a routine defense, “The Tartan Tornado” secured his legacy as the undisputed champion, defeating Jose Ramirez twice and earning minor points while adding the WBC and WBO belts.

Catterall was waiting in the wings as a WBO mandatory fighter and when he got his chance in Glasgow, many didn’t give him a chance.

It was a tough fight, but the guy dropped Taylor in the eighth and it looked like he had done enough to win, but the judges thought otherwise and awarded the 33-year-old the split decision victory.

There was no immediate rematch because Chorley man made a bid to defeat Darragh Foley in May 2023, with Taylor losing all but the WBO belts due to various obligations he could not fulfill, with that belt and his undefeated record going to Teofimo Lopez, who won a unanimous decision in Fresh York in June last year.

Catterall was last eliminated in October 2023, easily winning on the cards against a faded Jorge Linares. This fight has been discussed and postponed several times, with the April date being rescheduled for this one due to Taylor’s injury.

Clarke-Zorro fight for the British belt

The vacant British cruiserweight title hangs in the balance as Cheavon Clarke faces Ellis Zorro.

Clarke (8-0, 6 KO) is fresh off an impressive fourth-round stoppage of Tommy McCarthy in January, while Zorro (17-1, 7 KO) has taken on a gigantic challenge in the form of IBF world champion Jai Opetai of Saudi Arabia Arabia and was blown out in the middle of the round.

Cully argues with Patera

An intriguing fight will take place in the lightweight division, where Gary Cully (17-1, 10 KO) will be able to continue his comeback after a shocking defeat to Jose Felix last year, scoring points against former European champion Francesco Patera (29-4, 11 KO) ).

Donovan fights Ritson

Another tester should see that the talented Paddy Donovan (13-0, 10 KO) will remain undefeated and that the Irishman can get a win on the schedule against Lewis Ritson (23-3, 13 KO), who is in his heaviest ever weight class, and was stopped in the ninth round by Ohara Davies in his last fight last March.

Undercard remaining

The only fighter in the eighth round is a middleweight, and George Liddard (6-0, 3 KO) may remove Graham McCormack (9-3-1, 1 KO) from the fight before the final bell.

In six rounds, Emmanuel Buttigieg (3-0, 1 KO) can win by stoppage against Anas Isarti (4-2) in the super welterweight and super featherweight divisions Giorgio Visioli (2-0, 2 KO) can do the same in his match against Sergio Obadai (6-3-1, 3 KO).

The pre-fight showdown between former UFC star Paige VanZant and OnlyFans content creator Elle Brooke turned out to be painfully awkward as the two traded insults ahead of their fight in Texas this weekend. The pair headlined Misfits Boxing 15 at the NRG Arena in Houston, Texas in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Brooke, 26, has a 3-1 record since turning to impact boxing, and heads into the fight following a dominant TKO victory over former Love Island star AJ Bunker. VanZant was one of the UFC’s rising stars before she lost four of her final six fights inside the Octagon and was released in 2020.

Since then, VanZant, 30, has competed in bare-knuckle boxing and professional wrestling, and has gained a huge fan base thanks to the risqué content she shares on OnlyFans and other platforms. Before the fight, the pair sat across the table to awkwardly exchange their opinions about each other and the fight.

The conversation was interrupted by a series of awkward silences, during which Brooke focused on the former MMA prodigy in particular. “I think people don’t talk about you as much these days,” Brooke said. “When you were in the UFC there was a lot of talk about it, but now you’ve lost that appeal. Whether it’s views or just people taking an interest in you, I think you’ve fallen.

“I guess you don’t really care about fighting anymore. I think you’re probably making your money elsewhere, I think your heart is no longer in the game and I think that’s your biggest weakness.

VanZant responded to Brooke’s claims that fans have lost interest in her fighting career by bluntly saying, “Is this your first main event appearance?” Brooke nodded in response and VanZant smiled smugly at her.

VanZant urged fighters to place an OnlyFans-style side bet on the fight. “It should be,” she told MMA Fighting. “There definitely should be something extra to it. But I do not know. She wouldn’t shake my hand [during] fight week. So we’ll have to come back to that conversation after the fight.”

Vanzant also suggested that they have a drink together after the fight in Texas, although Brooke had a stern warning for her opponent. “You won’t look very pretty,” Brooke said. “You’ll be all bloody and fucked up and you’ll be like, ‘I just got beat by a powerful man, damn it.'”