In Undisputed 2, Michael Jai White’s boxing champion George “Iceman” Chambers learns some martial arts – here’s every fighting style he performs.
What different disciplines of martial arts does Michael Jai White’s George “Iceman” Chambers learn in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing? The martial arts-based Undisputed franchise would come to center Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) as its focal point, introducing him as the antagonist of Undisputed 2. Chambers would also return from his role as the antagonist of Undisputed, with Michael Jai White taking over from Ving Rhames, Chambers unscrupulously sent to a Russian prison to be Boyka’s opponent in an MMA fight.
Michael Jai White first took up martial arts as a child and is consequently well-versed in many different disciplines of martial arts. White’s career in action movies has seen him utilize his skills in such movies as Blood & Bone,
Falcon Rising, Triple Threat, and the Never Back Down series. For Undisputed 2 started White’s Chambers from a foundation of the former world heavyweight boxing champion.
Chambers’ only path to freedom lies in beating Boyka, and he gets a big surprise from Boyka’s versatility in their MMA match. Recognizing the need to expand his skills for their rematch in order to have a shot at victory, Chambers trains with his fellow prisoner Crot (Eli Danker). After getting just good enough with some new techniques to level the playing field with Boyka, Chambers wins the second fight. Here are the styles of martial arts Chambers learns techniques from for his rematch with Undisputed 2’s antagonist Yuri Boyka.
Muay Thai
With its methodology combining punching, kicking, knees, and elbow, Muay Thai is the art that Chambers expands his striking skills with. Due to the brevity of time to train, Chambers learns Muay Thai elbow strikes, spinning back-fists, knees, and roundhouse kicks, which he only brings to about knee level. As a Muay Thai beginner, Chambers’ techniques, particularly his kicks, are still fairly crude in his fight with Boyka. As a life-long martial artist, this proved to be tricky for White in adjusting Chambers’ fighting style against Boyka, requiring him to attempt “kick bad,” in the words of Undisputed 2 director and auteur of several Scott Adkins movies Isaac Florentine on the movie’s DVD audio commentary.RELATED:
Scott Adkins Finds His Ultimate Form In ‘Boyka: Undisputed’ (2016)
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Predicated on grappling with an opponent on the ground, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu relies on chokes and joint manipulations such as armbars and leg locks. To add further support to his boxing and limited Muay Thai skills, Chambers uses a variety of different Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-based grappling maneuvers in his second fight with Boyka as a counter to his opponent’s own grappling skills. Chambers’ winning technique against Boyka is a leg lock on his shoulder that he uses to painfully shatter Boyka’s knee and win the fight. This would also leave Boyka with a challenge in Undisputed 3: Redemption: Boyka dealing with a bad knee for his next tournament.Sambo
When Crot approaches Chambers to train him to face Boyka again, his wheelchair-bound fellow prisoner mentions some of his own fighting background, which includes training in “military close-combat.” While this doesn’t specify any specific form of martial arts, given the Russian setting of Undisputed 2, Crot’s training of Chambers familiarizes him with the Russian throw-oriented martial art of Sambo. Chambers uses some Sambo throws to counter Boyka’s attacks and get him into position for his fight-winning knee snap.
In all, Chambers only gets a taste of the eclectic nature of MMA in Undisputed 2. As a result of their fights in Undisputed 2, both Chambers and Boyka leave the ring changed and re-evaluating themselves as fighters in different ways. Hopefully, they can meet again in Undisputed 5 (Liam O’Donnell having penned a treatment) for Chambers to show his full MMA skills after Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing.