The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 90

"Yeah! Go, Matthew!"

"Uppercut, Matthew! I want to see that uppercut! Yes, just like that!"

"Come on, Matthew, take Nibora down already!"

A chorus of shouts erupted from the twenty or so people standing around the ring in the boxing gym, watching the two well-built men spar.

In the ring were Matthew and his trainer, Nibora, both clad in full protective gear.

Almost all the spectators were rooting for Matthew, not because they were particularly on his side, but because the boxing coach with the unusual name, Nibora, never lost, and they were eager to see someone finally defeat him.

Matthew was completely on the defensive. Although he'd been in specialized training for a month or so, he was no match for Nibora, who had been training for years.

In modern competitive fighting, with its systematic and scientific training methods, an unarmed, one-on-one bout between a regular person and a specialized fighter was a complete mismatch.

But Matthew had his own strengths compared to Nibora, especially since the two had sparred many times recently, and he had learned valuable lessons from his successive defeats.

Though he wasn't as experienced as Nibora and there was a weight difference, he was light on his feet and possessed superior physical coordination and agility after his recent training.When they had first started sparring, Matthew's lack of experience meant he took a lot of heavy hits, and an amateur like him had limited resistance to such blows.

The noise from ringside was constant, with many shouting advice, but Matthew remained unfazed. He used his nimble footwork to his advantage, constantly circling the ring, occasionally harassing his opponent with forward jabs and preventing him from getting close enough to grapple.

The strategy worked. For the first time, Matthew lasted until the third and final round of their purely amateur training match.

Nibora was older, heavier, and had more stamina, but tiring him out was exactly what Matthew was aiming for.

He continued to circle, looking for an opening. Nibora was noticeably slower than in the previous two rounds. After taking a couple of right jabs from Matthew, his otherwise tight defense showed a gap on the right side of his face, exposing the cheek protected by his headgear.

Matthew saw his chance and immediately used his speed, landing a left hook to the headgear, followed by a right that connected in the same spot.

He then unleashed a combination of blows to Nibora’s body.

Nibora covered his head with his arms, seemingly unable to fight back, but he was a professional fighter and retreated without a trace of panic.

Matthew’s assault was short-lived. His arms soon began to ache, and he realized he couldn’t knock Nibora down, so after one more strong push, he backed off.

A counterattack followed. Matthew dodged and continued to fight until the end of the third round.

Two men acting as temporary judges conferred briefly, before one of them announced loudly, "Nibora wins on points!"

"Another win for the old man!"

"I really thought Matthew had that one."

A murmur of disappointment spread around the ring as the spectators gradually dispersed.

With help from the staff, Matthew removed his gloves and followed Nibora out of the ring, waiting for his breathing to even out a bit before taking a drink of water.

"I’m getting up there in years. I barely withstood your assault in that third round." Nibora screwed the cap on his water bottle, leaned against the ropes, and said to Matthew, "You chose the right strategy."

Matthew leaned against the ropes as well. "But I don't have enough punching power."

Nibora laughed. "I'm an all-American professional fighter. Even at my age, I can still take a punch."

He reached out and clapped Matthew on the shoulder. "You're damn good. Your strength, coordination, and reflexes... I’d call you top-tier among amateurs, even though you’ve only been training for less than two months."

Matthew shrugged. It was perfectly obvious that the original Matthew, usually so simple and dense, could have made a name for himself if he had chosen a career in professional sports.

"I even think you've picked the wrong career." Having served as Matthew's boxing coach recently, Nibora felt he saw things clearly. "You shouldn't be an actor."

Matthew asked with curiosity, "Why?"

Nibora didn't look like he was joking. "You have the potential to be a professional fighter. If you trained professionally, making it to the UFC would be entirely possible."

He touched Matthew's shoulder again. "I can introduce you to a coach, if you're interested."

"No, thanks." Matthew declined politely without a second thought. "I have better prospects as a Hollywood star, and my talent won't go to waste if I become an action star in the future."

Nibora nodded. "That's true. You have an innate talent for boxing."

He stated bluntly, "From a purely physical standpoint, you're much better than Hugh Jackman, whom I once trained."

Matthew laughed, not taking the comment too seriously, but he smiled. "Thanks for the training. We'll pick this up again after I finish filming."

This was his last day of training. In three days, he was scheduled to head to Universal Studios, where the crew of The Fast and the Furious was located, to participate in some pre-production training organized by the production team.

"Good luck," Nibora offered. "I hope you become a star."

"Thanks!"

Matthew left the boxing gym, showered, and went home. Britney snuck over for another date that evening, but as usual, she left for home after nine.

Neither of them had any free time after that. Britney had to prepare for the MTV Music Awards—navigating the red carpet is much more demanding for actresses than for actors—and Matthew headed to the set of The Fast and the Furious to begin his five-day training.

The training turned out to be much easier than he'd expected. The director himself taught the classes for the actors involved in the action scenes. The lessons were divided into two main parts: how to work with the crew during action sequences—the top priority, since fight scenes in movies are completely different from reality—and on-set safety.

"We have stunt doubles for the dangerous scenes, but you..." During a break, a tall, lean actor with medium-length blond hair remarked to Matthew with sympathy, "You have to do both of your scenes yourself."

Matthew smiled and shrugged. "Paul, I can handle it."

The man he was talking to was Paul Walker, one of the film's male leads. There were only five or six people in the training session, and over the past few days, Matthew had gotten to know all of them, especially Paul Walker.

After observing him for a few days, Matthew found that Paul was an easygoing guy, not hot-tempered, and friendly with everyone. He was one of the nicest actors with any degree of fame that Matthew had ever met.

Paul shook his head, looking unconvinced.

Matthew glanced at the other actors in the training and asked, "Why haven't I seen the other male lead yet?"

The training was almost over, and Vin Diesel still hadn't shown up.

"You won't. The guy isn't coming to the training," Paul informed him. "I heard from his agent that he's negotiating with the production for more screen time for Dominic Toretto."

Matthew asked curiously, "He's not very famous. How can he negotiate with the production?"

Paul obviously knew a thing or two about the situation. "Vin Diesel invested a significant amount of money in the production. Even though he's not a credited producer, he has a say in a lot of things. Originally, Dominic Toretto was purely a supporting character, but after Vin took the role, the script was revised several times to make him one of the leads."

Matthew nodded. "I see."

The five days of training flew by in the blink of an eye, and Vin Diesel never once appeared.

But Matthew wasn't concerned about such things. He only had a small role with a few scenes and would be leaving the set soon, so he didn't expect to interact much with the main cast anyway.

Filming for The Fast and the Furious began quickly, and Matthew joined the crew on the third day of the shoot.