Fresh off stepping into the shoes of women’s boxing legend Christy Martin, actress Sydney Sweeney entertained the idea of getting into the ring for real.
Sweeney told Sportscasting’s David Evans she and Martin have actually discussed putting her in an actual boxing match.
“So, this isn’t as hypothetical as you actually think it is,” she said. “Yeah, I’d totally do a charity bout, that’d be so sick.”
Sweeney portrayed Martin, who went 49-7-3 with 32 knockouts as a pro, in the film Christy, which releases nationwide on Friday.
To provide as much accuracy as possible, she took a method approach for her role.
“For about two and a half months, I would weight train in the morning for an hour, box three hours in the middle of the day, and then another hour of weight training at night,” Sweeney said. “I put on 35 pounds and it was hard. I started losing weight once I upped my boxing time and had to find that balance, just continually pounding more and more protein shakes.”
Sweeney added she grew to “love” boxing and wondered during filming whether she should embrace her newfound passion.
Mickey Rourke famously took a backseat as an actor in the 1990s to pursue boxing. He fought eight times as a pro from 1991-94.
This wouldn’t be unprecedented.
Given how much one-off exhibitions have grown thanks in large part to Jake Paul, Sweeney would certainly generate a ton of money for charity if she were sincere in wanting to box.