Tuesday 12 January 2016 14:11, UK
Tony Bellew is looking to get back to world level after taking time out to act, so here are some fighters who have done just that.
'Bomber' plays the part of "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, who takes on Adonis Johnson Creed, son of Apollo, in the already critically-acclaimed Creed, the latest spin-off from the legendary Rocky series which hits the big screen in Europe this month.
Looking back and looking at the credit the film is getting, I don't regret it. I just, from a boxing point of view, think my career really should've kicked on after I beat Cleverly.
Bellew knows he needs to put on a show inside the ring to prove you can still win a world title after making a name for yourself on-screen. Here are a few who did just that, and one who didn't have to...
Lights out, camera, action... arguably one of the best entertainers in and out of the ring hit Hollywood in 2001 in the best-known boxing movie, Ali. While Will Smith played The Greatest, Toney took one of the the support roles - Smokin Joe Frazier. Fellow fighters Charles Shufford and Damian Wills played George Foreman and Ken Norton respectively, but even if it was a silent role - certainly by his standards - Toney was the best of Ali's film rivals.
Starting with Ali's career-defining win over Sonny Liston in 1964, the film documents the life of the heavyweight hero, which reaches a victorious climax with the 'Rumble in the Jungle'. The growling Toney could even raise a smile as the film featured Frazier's famous points win in 'The Fight of the Century' in 1971 - the only time Toney was a winner at Madison Square Garden. Toney's 2005 points win over John Ruiz was later ruled a No Contest after the 37-year-old was found to be using a banned substance.
But while Ali was the pinnacle of his Hollywood career, Lights Out had made his film debut a full eight years before that, as part of the backing band for none other than BB King in Heart and Soul, released in 1993, the same year he claimed the IBF super-middleweight title.
Careers collided? Well, Toney was first crowned world champion 10 years before Ali came calling but he did add another successful chapter to his career two years after the film. In a highlight reel moment, Toney floored the fearsome Vassiliy Jirov in the final round to earn the IBF cruiserweight title with a points win.
Did you know? It is claimed that at no stage was Joe Frazier consulted for Ali, even though Toney and the Fight of the Century took centre stage on screen.
Antonio Tarver was the latest boxer to take a role in a Rocky movie, although his was bigger than the previous sparring or walk-on parts. Rocky had lost it all - including the numerical title names - by 2006 and when Rocky Balboa started shooting, a current upstart stepped into the spotlight.
'Magic Man' Tarver played Mason 'The Line' Dixon, the current and unpopular world heavyweight champion shortly after Tarver had stunned boxing and made a name for himself by beating the one and only Roy Jones Jr with that iconic second-round KO.
Tarver and Sylvester Stallone might have choreographed their filmed exhibition fight but it's said that both hit home - and hard - over the 10 rounds. Dixon won on points, but the real-life fighter would suffer a major setback six months before the film was finished, losing a points decision to Bernard Hopkins.
Careers collided? Tarver had beaten Jones Jr again a year earlier than the December 2006 release of Rocky Balboa, but that defeat to Hopkins took the shine off his starring role in the movie. Tarver would enjoy another spell in the spotlight, taking the IBF title from Clinton Woods on points in 2008, and is still striving for success as a heavyweight.
Did you know? Roy Jones Jr was originally asked to play the role of Dixon but didn't respond to Stallone's phone call.
Few fighters win the Golden Gloves five times or an Olympic gold, so if there is ever a filming-fighting award, take a bow Mark Breland. The New York welterweight hit the big screens before he grabbed gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and then let his professional career take the lead role.
Breland started his amateur success in 1982 when he won the American title as well as the World Championship, but within a year - while he kept adding to his amateur collection - he made his screen debut in The Lord of Discipline, in which he played the first black student to be accepted in a Military Institute in the Deep South.
His next role was as one of the tallest welterweights we've seen and the 6' 2" fighter boxed for 14 years, winning the world title twice and within a year of retiring, he worked with friend Spike Lee. Breland was in He Got The Game (1999) the basketball flick with Shaq O'Neill and Michael Jordan, playing a gun-toting character. A year later he was in the Summer of Sam, about the serial killings and following riots in New York in 1977.
Careers collided? Breland barely let them clash. He had already made his acting debut before he turned professional, then took just 14 fights to become the WBA welterweight champion. He called it a day in 1998 and within a year he was back on the big screens. Now a trainer, he has helped direct Deontay Wilder's rise to the top of the heavyweight world.
Did you know? According to IMDB, Evander Holyfield played a rioter in Summer of Sam - around the same time he drew with filmstar-to-be, Lennox Lewis.
Lennox Lewis lost his world titles to Hasim Rahman in South Africa in 2001, not long after his big-screen appearance in Ocean's Eleven. The unified heavyweight champion of the world remains the only man at the peak of his pugilist powers to take it on the chin, when Hollywood came knocking.
Lewis played himself, alongside Brad Pitt and George Clooney et al, in the modern remake of the heist movie. As part of the plot, Lewis would clash with Wladimir Klitschko, a real heavyweight rival, who also decided to take a role in the Las Vegas-based film. The elder Klitschko brother, Vitali, made an appearance for the ring-walk, but before their world title scrap got going, the lights went out and the heist began.
In April 2001, Lewis stepped back into the ring for real in Carnival City and the lights went out again when the Brit lost his two world titles after being knocked out by Rahman in five rounds. Yes, he exacted revenge on Rahman within five months and three weeks before the film was released, but given that the challenger was a 15/1 shot with some bookmakers for the first fight, it could be argued the American had pulled off a real-life big-money heist.
Careers collided? Wladimir Klitschko admitted his surprise that Lewis had chosen to defend his WBC and IBF belts so soon after a film role, halfway across the world. His Ocean's Eleven role will always be linked with that surprise Rahman loss, but once the film was out, he got to back to business, gained revenge and won both belts again.
Did you know? Wladimir Klitschko also boxed the same year but did not let filming get in his way, maybe because he boxed Charles Shufford - who played George Foreman in Ali the very same year!
The Baddest Man on the Planet wasn't the world's best actor but when he signed up for The Hangover around 2009, it was a move that came with financial clout. And by his own admission that is exactly what Tyson needed, a full four years after he had finally called it quits.
Tyson had somehow let his multi-million dollar fortune fritter away and was, again by his own admission, hooked on cocaine at the time. When the four Hangover boys hit Las Vegas, the former heavyweight king gave Alan a taste of his famous punch power after a bizarre rendition of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins, an Anthony Joshua favourite. Tyson and his tattoo appeared in Part II, by which time he had cleaned up his act, even if Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug had clearly not.
But in a movie surely made for him, Tyson hit Hollywood again in April 2003 when Scary Movie 5 emerged. He would later release the docu-film Tyson, a look back at his life and times, with clips, comments but no superstar cast.
Careers collided? Tyson obviously hit the screens big-time as a boxing icon, but finally retired in 2005, four years before Hollywood and The Hangover came along. It was 13 years since he had held a world-title belt but he remains the only one of any significance to play himself as a former boxer.
Did you know? Tyson used to own three Bengal tigers at a cost of $70,000 to buy and around $150,000 a month to feed. It is unknown if they liked to eat ears.
Creed will be released in cinemas across the UK on January 15, 2016. Running Time: 133mins Cert: 12A
