Jake Gyllenhaal gained 15Ibs of muscle to play boxer in Southpaw and is ripped again for Road

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Jake Gyllenhaal impressed many when he showed off his ripped physique and MMA skills while filming scenes for a new movie at UFC 285.

The Hollywood actor will star in a remake of Patrick Swayze’s 1980s classic Road House which will feature Conor McGregor and be released on Amazon Prime later this year.

Gyllenhaal made his first UFC 285 cameo on Friday when he stepped on the scale to ‘weigh in’ for a fictional title bout with retired MMA fighter Jay Hieron who plays his opponent in the film.

The next day, the 42-year-old appeared as his character, Elwood Dalton, to film a scene in the Octagon between actual fights at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Gyllenhaal ate several big shots before landing a flying knee ‘knockout’ blow on his opponent and impressing UFC president Dana White who commented on his bulky physique after UFC 285.

This is not the first time the Oscar nominee has played a fighter.

In 2015, Gyllenhaal starred in 'Southpaw' as a boxer trying to get his life back on track after losing his wife in a tragic accident and his daughter to social services.

To prepare to play a light-heavyweight world champion, the then-34-year-old actor gained 15lbs of muscle and learned how to box for real over the course of several months.

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Gyllenhaal trained for six hours a day. He would do 2000 sit-ups, run eight miles and go through a workout routine that included skipping, boxing and weight training.

During an interview with Howard Stern, he admitted to knowing nothing about boxing before taking on the film and throwing himself into the learning process.

Gyllenhaal said: “I trained twice a day for five months. I started at three miles and eventually, I was running eight miles.

“I would go and work out for two hours doing mitt work, heavy bag and speed bags. I didn’t know how to do anything. I didn’t know how to jab. I sucked!

“Over five months, every single day, twice a day you just start learning the techniques. It took me two months to get the speed bag and feel confident with the speed bag.”

Gyllenhaal revealed he had proper spars with real boxers but that stopped several weeks before filming began as he couldn’t look battered and bruised in every scene.

He added: “They can hit my face and they did hit my face, but we body sparred for the majority of the practice training sessions.

“Then we got into full-on sparring and then six weeks out we just started focusing on choreography because we’ve got to choreograph all these fights.”

Gyllenhaal enjoyed the process even if did mean taking a few punches.

He concluded: “The most interesting thing for me in acting is learning from people, learning what real people are doing in jobs that actually matter.

“So, if you get hit that’s part of the job and you can actually learn something. In fact, there are a number of actors who should get hit and I am actually one of them. It was fine.”

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After his impressive cameo at UFC 285, it appears Gyllenhaal has adopted the life of an MMA fighter as Tom Hardy did to prepare to play a prizefighter in the 2011 film ‘Warrior’.

It remains to be seen if he will continue to train in the sport as Hardy does 12 years after his foray into the wonderful world of martial arts.

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