The third movie in the Undisputed series, this installment features Yuri Boyka as the protagonist after he got his leg and pride broken by Chambers during their final fight in the last movie. Having recently healed from these wounds, Boyka returns to the ring and enters a prison tournament where fighters from all over the world compete for the prize of winning their freedom. There he butts heads with a loudmouthed American boxer named "Turbo". Uncomfortably reminded of Chambers, Boyka clashes with Turbo repeatedly; however, eventually they begin to grow on each other, until they eventually unite against Raúl "Dolor" Quiñones to beat him in the fixed tournament.
It was mostly lauded as a worthy sequel to Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, marked (as was the last one) by incredible choreography that was unaided by CGI, wires, or stunt doubles.
This film has the examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Smug Snake that he was, as Dolor lies on the ring floor, screaming his head off in agony and with his lower leg shattered it's pretty much impossible not to feel a stab of pity. It doesn't help that it more or less mirrors what happened to Boyka at the end of the second film.
- Anti-Hero: Boyka and Turbo are still convicts and have negative qualities, although they are clearly better people than the bad guys. (Turbo at least claims to be Wrongly Accused, but he's still an arrogant prick.)
- Artistic License – Martial Arts:
- The fighting ruleset displayed in the film seems more than a bit random, as it allows for both ground and pound (as in Brazilian old school vale tudo) and long count KOs (as in early Japanese Pancrase/RINGS, where ground and pound was frowned upon). The former rule makes the latter pointless - why would a fighter want to wait for a long count, potentially leaving his opponent time to recover, when he can legally pound on him nonstop until the referee gives him the win?
- It's odd that Silva never really scores anything resembling a knockdown with his kicks in any of his matches, instead grinding his opponents down with punches and only bringing them down with takedowns and scissors sweeps. Being Boyka's own size and specializing in capoera's classical long chains of unreleased torque, he should have the strongest kicks in the entire tournament, but they never ever prove decisive for his fights even whenever he lands them wholesale.
- Artistic License – Religion: "Jericho" was the name of the city, the name of the one who brought it's walls down was Joshua. You'd think a devout Christian like Boyka would know that, unless he is mentally noting "eh, close enough".
- Badass Boast: "God has given me only one thing; I am the most complete fighter in the world." Subverted in that in this particular scene Boyka isn't really boasting - he's confessing that fighting is the only thing he's good at and if he can't win he feels it makes him worthless. It's quite sobering, really.]]
- Beneath the Mask: As confessed to Turbo, Boyka thinks that fighting is the only thing he can do.
- Big Damn Heroes: Turbo pulls one to save Boyka.
- Break the Haughty: Thanks to his knee injury, Boyka has learned empathy. He is not an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy anymore.
- Broken Ace: Boyka, due to his injury.
- Bruce Lee Clone: Lam Chai. Asian and wiry? Check. Barechested? Check. Screaming and making scary faces while fighting? Check. Jumping kicks? Check.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Boyka starts as a broken man, as opposed to the cocky chambers.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rezo and Kuss.
- Counter-Attack: When turning serious, Turbo abandons his wild slugfest style and adopts a counterstriking strategy based on peek-a-boo defense and elbow strikes. This might be a reference to the quasi-mythical real life martial art of Jailhouse Rock
, which supposedly keeps a very close-knit guard and makes heavy use of countering incoming strikes with elbows. - Curb-Stomp Battle:
- An injured Boyka defeats Sykov so easily that one cannot help but wonder what would have happened to the latter had he entered the tournament.
- An undersized Chai tries really hard with his kick combos, but none of the harms the juiced-up Dolor, who wrecks him at will.
- Dance Battler: Silva and his Capoeira style. He even does the ginga a couple of times against Petros.
- Deadpan Snarker: Turbo has his moments. Boyka too, with an extra helping of "deadpan".
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Silva defeats his first opponent by peppering him with punches and kicks here and there throughout the match, ultimately sweeping him down and mounting him for more punches.
- Determinator: Turbo and specially Boyka.
- Embarrassing First Name: Jericho "Turbo" Jones.
- Evil Counterpart: Dolor to the bad old Boyka. It extends to their movesets: while Boyka's signature move is a 540 kick, Dolor uses a reverse 540.
- Expy:
- In-universe, Turbo is one to Chambers from the previous film.
- Visually, Dolor strongly reminisces of Paco from Bloodsport.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Yuri and Turbo.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Boyka's bad knee gives him trouble at crucial points of the fights.
- Good Old Fisticuffs:
- Turbo's fighting style, paired with smart elbow strikes.
- Silva also uses it whenever he manages to mount his opponent on the mat.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Dolor has some lines in Spanish to demonstrate how Colombian he is.
- Handicapped Badass: Downplayed, but it's apparent Boyka still suffers from the knee injury Chambers inflicted on him in the previous film.
- Handwraps of Awesome: Many fighters, given they fight without gloves.
- Heel–Face Turn: Thanks to his new experiences, Boyka is a nicer guy at the end of the movie than he was at the previous film.
- Hidden Depths:
- Although Silva or Lam at first seem to be limited to their capoeira and taekwondo specialties, they demonstrate some rounded MMA skills as well, as Silva finishes a fight with ground and pound and both of them try armbars against their opponents. (In a psychological sense, Silva also shows a hidden side when finishing his first opponent, as he goes apeshit with unorthodox two-fisted punishment as soon as he doesn't need his elegant capoeira footwork anymore.)
- Also Turbo, who after being too careless in his first match distinctly switches tactics. Once he has taken a number of unnecessary hits, he employs a peek-a-boo stance and a remarkably precise counter-offence of elbow strikes to his opponent's fists and head. Sadly, this is never used again and Turbo spends the rest of the film throwing haymakers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Lam Chai tries a flying armbar on Quiñones, but as he is too beaten down, he loses his grip and Dolor simply throws him to the ground.
- Later, Dolor gets his leg broken in one of his own kicks.
- Hot-Blooded: Turbo.
- Hurricane Kick:
- Informed Flaw: Boyka is supposed to have a painful knee injury, but he doesn't actually seem to suffer from it aside from grimacing occasionally during his bouts, and his fighting style is even more acrobatic than in the former film. However, he does sell it when his knee is hit.
- Irony: In a meta sense. Boyka submits Brazilian fighter Silva with a triangle choke, a move popular in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This might veer into
Genius Bonus territory if one's at least somewhat aware of interactions between Capoeira and BJJ throughout history (hint: they were less than amicable). - Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although Gaga is presented as a Smug Snake, he stays loyal to Boyka despite all appearances and ends up saving the day.
- Kick the Dog: The fighters in the losing side are summarily executed by the prison guards.
- Lightning Bruiser: Dolor is not only the biggest of the competitors. He's also the fastest.
- Magnificent Bastard: Gaga may present himself a Smug Snake, but the way he manipulated the tournament in his favor was quite impressive.
- Meaningful Echo: "I am the most complete fighter in the world."
- Meaningful Name: "Dolor" means "Pain" in Spanish.
- Nonchalant Dodge: Executed by Dolor against Lam Chai, to the extent of literally shrugging off a flying armbar attempt.
- No-Sell: Chai actually lands many kicks on Dolor; it's only that the Colombian is so tough (and probably so enhanced by the drugs he takes) that he absorbs them without a sign of pain. He even turns to the crowd and celebrates mockingly.
- Roundhouse Kick: Almost all the fighters are prone to spinning kicks while fighting. At the end of his dominant round, Dolor pulls a specially flashy one to throw Boyka out the ring.
- Pet the Dog: After beating Silva, for the first time Boyka helps his opponent up from the mat.
- Prisons Are Gymnasiums: A recurrent trope in the series, although obviously more on the "tough guy becomes even tougher" side of things, taken to the extreme here: doing labour can be used to work out.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Yuri still being a Christian devout, although not as explicitly as the previous film.
- Sacrificial Lion: Lam Chai, apparently a very capable fighter, is destroyed by Dolor in a pretty crushing way just to show Dolor's viciousness.
- Smug Snake:
- Dolor comes off as the top dog of the tournament but that is only because the ones running the tournament rig it in his favor by having the fighters do slave labor to wear them down before one of them fights Dolor.
- Rezo, his handler, puts on an Affably Evil Cool Old Guy front but once Boyka beats Dolor he completely unravels and is rather unceremoniously killed by one of the men he screwed over.
- Spell My Name With An S:
- On IMDB Lateef's character is labelled "Rodrigo" for whatever that's worth, but depending on the dub, you will hear, "Rodrigo", "Andriago" or even "Santiago". His heavy accent doesn't help when he presents himself in the original.
- A variation with Lam Chai, which is changed to "Chai Lam" or "Chi Lam".
- The Stoic: Boyka.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Well, Boyka is the most complete fighter in the world.
- Unstoppable Rage: Boyka after he straps up his injured knee, he absolutely destroys Dolor in a fit of anger.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Dolor uses very little grappling, resorting more to striking Boyka-style to overwhelm his opponents, and he is damn good at it.
- Wicked Cultured: Dolor is shown reading García Lorca poems during his free time.
- Worthy Opponent: Turbo and Boyka considers each other this by the end of the film. Also, before that, Boyka and Silva. Yuri even compliments the latter for his fighting skills. Silva returns the compliment in Portuguese.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Dolor performs Masaaki Mochizuki's Sankakugeri against Boyka.
