Undisputed 5 can pay off Yuri Boyka’s failed strategy of victory in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing. As Scott Adkins’ Undisputed franchise saving character, Yuri Boyka was first introduced in Undisputed 2, an MMA fighter in a Russian prison who believes himself to be The Most Complete Fighter in the World. While Boyka is undeniably an extremely skilled fighter, there have been times where his pride has gotten the best of him. Such was the case in his fight with former world heavyweight boxing champion George “Iceman” Chambers (Michael Jai White) in Undisputed 2.
In their first fight in the ring, Boyka confidently tells Chambers, “I’ll beat you at your own game.” . Only fists.” Despite Boyka’s boasts, Chambers proves to be too skilled in pure boxing for Boyka to defeat him, forcing him to revert to his full MMA skill set. Boyka winning the boxing match in Undisputed 5 could bring that circle full circle. The qualities that make Boyka a great character are his sense of honor and his drive to improve his martial arts skills. Boyka even considers this something given to him by God himself. Even if Boyka’s complete fighting
skills made him capable of defeating anyone in the world, the idea that even one aspect of that fight, such as boxing, could be defeated in isolation would never sit well with him. A sequel to Undisputed has been proposed in both the form of a television series and Liam O’Donnell’s take on Undisputed 5, both of which undoubtedly make up the entire Boyka story. After his experience in the Undisputed series, Boyka returned a better man and a better fighter. The ideal way to demonstrate the latter would be to not only have Scott Adkins fully utilize Boyka in the fight scenes as usual, but to actually have Boyka win the boxing match.
Boyka was hardly a lackluster boxer against Chambers, but their first fight and Boyka’s entire experience in Undisputed 2 taught him many lessons. One of the biggest ones was that he could never imagine that any limited parameters of combat would not require him to adapt. The best way for Undisputed 5 to show that Boyka’s journey from villain to hero led him to learn this lesson is to be the winner of the Fists Only match.