{"id":177318,"date":"2025-10-03T11:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/177318\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:53:10","slug":"the-rock-details-moment-he-realized-oleksandr-usyk-is-a-bad-dude-as-he-continues-to-tease-mma-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/177318\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rock details moment he realized Oleksandr Usyk is a ‘bad dude’ as he continues to tease MMA fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whilst filming for \u2018The Smashing Machine\u2019, The Rock quickly realized how much of a \u2018bad dude\u2019 boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk is.<\/p>\n

In just a few more days on October 3, \u2018The Smashing Machine\u2019<\/a> film is released worldwide, with combat sports fans champing at the bit to finally see the biographical sports drama.<\/p>\n

Dwayne \u2018The Rock\u2019 Johnson<\/a> will play UFC<\/a> legend Mark Kerr<\/a> in the film and the WWE legend explained that he opted to take on the challenge because of it being a more serious film than any others he\u2019s starred in.<\/p>\n

And with it being such a serious film, The Rock admitted that he was \u2018really scared\u2019 to transform into Kerr<\/a> for the film because he didn\u2019t know if he was going to be able to do him justice.<\/p>\n

Fellow combat sports star Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> also stars in the film, playing the role of legendary kickboxer Igor Novchanchyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"OleksandrPhoto by Richard Pelham\/Getty ImagesThe Rock details moment he realized Oleksandr Usyk is a \u2018bad dude\u2019<\/p>\n

Usyk is widely regarded as the current pound-for-pound greatest fighter on the planet, but he was officially knocked off top spot by Terence Crawford<\/a> recently following his win over Canelo Alvarez. <\/p>\n

The Ukrainian hasn\u2019t set foot back in the ring since July earlier this year when he knocked out Daniel Dubois<\/a> in their highly anticipated rematch.<\/p>\n

And during the filming of the movie, The Rock has detailed the moment when he realized how physically strong and imposing the boxing champion is.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you about Usyk, an amazing guy, a beautiful soul, beautiful stories to tell us,\u201d The Rock told talkSPORT.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get in the ring with him and we didn\u2019t cut away, which meant I had to mix it up with these guys and get my ass kicked. The first time I locked up with Usyk, I knew then, I knew when I locked up with him and felt his embrace, I knew this was a bad dude.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsyk can be deceptive with how he looks, but when he locks up, that deception becomes a reality. He is so fast, and you knew that if one of those punches slipped, I was going to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usyk continues to tease a potential fight in MMA<\/p>\n

Following his win over Dubois earlier this year, Usyk controversially faced off with Jake Paul<\/a>, and since then, there have been talks regarding a potential future fight between the two.<\/p>\n

However, the Ukrainian wants to mix it up and fight \u2018The Problem Child\u2019 in MMA<\/a>, continuing to tease a potential fight in MMA.<\/p>\n

When Paul signed with the PFL in 2023, he agreed to fight in MMA but he has yet to back his word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whilst filming for \u2018The Smashing Machine\u2019, The Rock quickly realized how much of a \u2018bad dude\u2019 boxing champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,716,4036,101,58960,52391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-177318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-mma","10":"tag-oleksandr-usyk","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-the-rock","13":"tag-the-smashing-machine","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}