Bellator champion Ryan Bader joins the cast of The Rock’s ‘The Smashing Machine’ movie

It seems that Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader is getting involved in show business.

‘Darth’ has been out of action since a clash with PFL heavyweight tournament winner Renan Ferreira in February. The two heavyweights headlined the PFL vs. Bellator event in Saudi Arabia, and it didn’t go well for Ryan Bader. Just seconds into the contest, ‘Problema’ scored a knockdown and quickly stopped the champion.

For Ryan Bader, the defeat was his first at heavyweight, and his first loss in general since being stopped by Corey Anderson in 2021. Since that defeat, there hasn’t been an update on the heavyweight champion’s future. With the PFL now running Bellator, the titleholder hasn’t been booked, nor has there been a rumor for his next bout.

That’s likely because Ryan Bader is taking a brief hiatus from MMA. Taking to Instagram earlier this week, the Bellator heavyweight champion announced his role in ‘The Smashing Machine’. The film is currently being filmed and will star WWE superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The movie centers around the life of former UFC heavyweight Mark Kerr and is set to be directed by Benny Safdie.

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Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader gets added to the cast of ‘The Smashing Machine’

“Putting the mma game on pause for a bit as I head to Vancouver for about 3 months.” Ryan Bader wrote in the Instagram post earlier today announcing his first movie role. “Excited to be a part of an amazing project by Benny Safdie #thesmashingmachine . Giving ode to a couple legends of the sport, @markkerrtsm @markcolemanufc the highs and the lows that come with this crazy ass sport. @therock”

As of now, it’s unknown what role Ryan Bader will play in the film. Furthermore, there’s still a lot that’s unknown about ‘The Smashing Machine’ film beyond the involvement of Johnson and Safdie. However, ‘The Rock’ did release a video earlier this month, showing clips of himself training to play the role of Kerr.

As of now, the film is expected to be released at some point in 2025. However, ‘The Smashing Machine’ currently lacks an official release date.

What do you make of this news involving the Bellator heavyweight champion? Will you watch Ryan Bader in The Rock’s ‘Smashing Machine’ film when it releases?