Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson isn’t the only person that will be bringing an MMA legend to the big screen.
Johnson wanted to challenge himself by playing Mark Kerr in a biopic about the UFC legend’s life and career.
‘The Smashing Machine’, written and directed by Benny Safdie, is set to release on October 3 in the United States.
With Johnson’s performance leaving a legend of the sport with goosebumps, the film itself features several of the iconic fighters that were around at the same time as the protagonist.
One of the most notable additions to the cast saw boxing great Oleksandr Usyk swap the squared circle for the glamorous lights of Hollywood to play an intimidating force.
Igor Vovchanchyn holds the joint record for the longest undefeated streak in MMA at 40 fights
Last year, it was announced that Oleksandr Usyk would be playing Igor Vovchanchyn in A24’s ‘The Smashing Machine’.
The MMA legend is likely to be an integral part of the story due to his two previous fights with Mark Kerr in 1999 and 2000.
While this may be a spoiler for fans who want to go in to the movie without knowing too much, Vovchanchyn famously ended Kerr’s undefeated run where he lived up to his nickname, though the outcome of their first meeting was overturned due to illegal knees.
His encounters with ‘The Smashing Machine’ will only scratch the surface of the incredible career that the Ukrainian was able to produce in MMA.
Along with Travis Fulton, he holds the joint record for MMA’s longest undefeated streak at 40 consecutive fights from 1996 to 2000.
Vovchanchyn surprisingly never won a Pride Grand Prix, having had his undefeated streak ended by Mark Coleman in the finals of 2000 open weight tournament.
In comparison to the modern day sport, the longest active winning streaks belong to the likes of Shavkat Rakhmonov, Movsar Evloev and Usman Nurmagomedov, who have all won 19 fights in a row.
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| Notable names on MMA’s longest active win streaks | Current win streak |
| Shavkat Rakhmonov | 19 |
| Movsar Evloev | 19 |
| Usman Nurmagomedov | 19 |
| Jack Della Maddalena | 18 |
| Timur Khizriev | 18 |
| Shamil Musaev | 18 |
| Michael Morales | 17 |
| Ilia Topuria | 17 |
Mark Kerr and Joe Rogan were blown away by Oleksandr Usyk’s performance as Igor Vovchanchyn
During his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Mark Kerr spoke about being really impressed by Oleksandr Usyk’s work in ‘The Smashing Machine’.
Both men remarked how great it was to see the boxer convincingly become Igor Vovchanchyn.
Kerr also noted that Usyk had signed onto the project years before he went on to defeat Tyson Fury to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.
“Benny signed him before he became the undisputed champ. So it’s one of those things where everything just kind of lined up in a way where you’re like, ‘Alright, this is manifest destiny’.”
Having watched Usyk then go on to dominate the heavyweight division, Kerr stated that the boxer had done 600 rounds with three different training partners to prepare for his first fight with Tyson Fury.
