Undisputed 2 holds a special place in martial arts cinema for introducing the memorable character of Yuri Boyka played by Scott Adkins. Although Scott Adkins has done many top-notch martial arts films, Undisputed 3 is one of his best, and this predecessor sets the stage.
Unlike Undisputed 3 and 4, which have perfected and well-developed martial arts choreography, Undisputed 2 is still figuring out the characters and is more centered on drama. And unlike the later films, Scott Adkins’ Boyka is not the main character. Instead, the movie is about the fictional former heavyweight boxing champion George “Iceman” Chambers, who somehow ends up in a Russian prison destined to fight Boyka. It’s also quite interesting to see Boyka as the bad guy, which makes his transition into a likeable character more interesting in the later films.
On the other hand, our hero chambers is played by Michael Jai White, who is a top martial artist himself and no stranger to choreography. He plays a convincing adversary to Bokya while trying to figure out how to stay alive in a pretty nasty prison.
But what about the martial arts? We definitely get to see Boyka’s fancy kicks and well-choreographed fights between Boyka and Chambers. Chambers plays a boxer so you don’t get to see the “complete” Michael Jai White, but he does learn a few things along the way in the movie and the fight scenes are nicely directed.
That being said, the fight scenes in the movie are rather short compared to the more detailed ones of Undisputed 3 or some other classic Scott Adkins movies like Ninja 2. And I think that especially shows in the final fight between Chambers and Boyka.
Not only is the fight short, but Chambers defeats Boyka far too easily. Indeed, based on the fact that Boyka is using a more complete set of techniques with his legs, it would have been nice to see Chambers struggle a little and adapt throughout the fight. Such struggle would be more consistent with the first fight between Chambers and Boyka earlier in the movie, where Chambers has some trouble once Boyka starts kicking.
Despite this, the movie is entertaining and provides a worthy introduction to the Boyka character that we all know and love from the two sequels.