Yuri Boyka’s alliance with Turbo in Undisputed 3: Redemption was the most important element of the film’s plot, and even more important than some viewers might have realized. The Undisputed martial arts film franchise has had an interesting success story to say the least, as it didn’t have much success until the release of 2007’s Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing. Directed by Isaac Florentine, Undisputed 2 introduced Boyka as a reigning titan of the prison MMA world, a role that also marked Scott Adkins’ big break.
Despite his undeniable fighting skills, Boyka’s pride gets the better of him and leads to his downfall in Undisputed 2. In the 2010 sequel Undisputed 3: Redemption, Boyka became the protagonist and central character of the franchise. Adkins will portray Boyka again in the 2017 sequel Boyka: Undisputed, while an Undisputed TV series has also been discussed as a sequel.
In Undisputed 3, Boyka’s rise back to the top and quest for freedom was hampered by both the physical and psychological trauma he suffered. To succeed, Boyka joins forces with fellow inmate and MMA rival Jericho Jones, aka Turbo (Mykel Shannon Jenkins). While their partnership was clearly an important component of Undisputed 3, underneath the surface of the story it was not just important, but truly important.
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Boyka Has Few Friends In The Undisputed Series
Starting out as the antagonist of Undisputed 2, Boyka had prisoners cheering his name as spectators of his fights. In Undisputed 2, he is shown to be given special privileges as the reigning MMA champion in his prison, while at the same time having a small circle of followers ready to call him out. Despite this, Boyka has no friends in the traditional sense, and upon the latter’s arrival, he becomes a quick enemy of George “Iceman” Chambers (Michael Jai White). This was largely the merit of Boyka himself. He let his success in the ring go to his head, declaring himself the most complete fighter in the world and mistreating both his opponents and his cornermen.
Although Boyka’s belief that his fighting skills were a gift from God was always sincere, his unbridled pride caused everyone around him to either hate or fear him. Russian mafia boss Gaga (Mark Ivanir) is also not a real friend of Boyka, but simply sees him as a means to get rich through his constant victories. Boyka’s lack of friends in prison life makes his defeat by Chambers even more crushing for him. With no real support, Boyka has resigned himself to the fact that his mixed martial arts days are behind him, scrubbing prison floors and hobbling around on a bad knee for what appears to be the rest of his life at the start of Undisputed 3.
Undisputed 3 Was Boyka’s Biggest Learning Experience
Once Boyka manages to get back into fighting shape, he will be able to compete in the Undisputed 3 International Prison Fighter Tournament. Boyka enters the tournament with the same fervent belief that he is the World’s Ultimate Fighter, chosen by God. At the same time, he firmly understands that this does not make him invincible. Boyka’s relationship with Turbo starts out much the same as his rivalry with Chambers: they didn’t even step into the ring before getting into a fight, doing the heavy lifting.
Despite this, with their hard work and limited time to train, it soon becomes clear to Boyka and Turbo that the tournament is rigged for Dolor to win, with Marko Zaror playing the villain. This forces Boyka and Turbo to treat their days spent in the sweltering heat as training. Although they were enemies at first, Turbo is the first inmate Boyka learns to form a true alliance with rather than seeing him as a potential enemy to be defeated. As the tournament approaches the final match, Boyka also arrives to learn another lesson.
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Boyka Realized Even He Needs Help Sometimes
Boyka faces Dolor in the final match of Undisputed 3 and Turbo helped him achieve victory and how he achieves it. Boyka knows that Turbo is in no condition to fight after being beaten by the guards in another attempt to ensure Dolor’s victory. When they learn that the defeated fighters will be executed, Boyka helps Turbo escape. After Scott Adkins’ Boyka defeats Dolor, he is taken away for execution only for Turbo to kill the guards and take Boyka away in the back seat of Gaga’s car. Boyka would never have survived without Turbo’s intervention, while the usually two-faced Gaga, who secretly bet on Boyka, gives him her share of the fight’s winnings.
In the finale of Undisputed 3, Boyka was headed into what he knew was a suicide mission, and was given a second chance for freedom and riches due to his selflessness. While his actual triumph in the ring over Dolor and the crooked prison apparatus was something Boyka did on his own, it was a team effort for him and Turbo to gain their respective freedom. Turbo deserves partial credit for Boyka’s win over Dolor for being Boyka’s training partner in their improvised calisthenics and cardio while conducting manual labor. While having a great indomitable will as Scott Adkins’ most famed character,
Boyka’s bad knee was also something Turbo helped him work past with remedies from his military background. Boyka may have been the man to defeat Dolor and destroy the cash cow the tournament’s organizers bet on. Nevertheless, his win, his survival, and his freedom were all things Turbo helped facilitate, with his newfound wealth coming from Gaga having at least some level of honor.
In his battles in the Undisputed franchise, Boyka sees himself as a very self-reliant man. Boyka’s many wins in and out of the ring certainly were testimony to his skills, but Undisputed 3’s conflict
It wasn’t just about defeating your opponents. Boyka himself makes this clear to Turbo, stating, “The people you fight here aren’t just in the ring.” As Scott Adkins’ personal favorite in the action franchise, Undisputed 3 stacked the deck against Boyka at every turn, from trying to negotiate a tournament to his bad knee giving him a weakness to overcome. More than any other Undisputed movie, Undisputed 3: Redemption showed that Boyka needed help finding a way out of a seemingly inevitable situation, and Turbo was the man to give him that support.