Champion boxer Andre Ward and British champion boxer Tony Bellew are in negotiations to lace up their gloves for Creed, MGM’s Rocky spinoff that focuses on the grandson of Apollo Creed.
Ryan Coogler, who directed Fruitvale Station, is directing the pugilistic picture, which sees Michael B. Jordan playing the grandson who is being mentored by Rocky Balboa. Sylvester Stallone is returning as Rocky.

Bellew will be the main opponent for Creed, a fighter called “Pretty Ricky Porter.”

The movie is looking at a January start and is due to shoot in Las Vegas and Philadelphia.

Ward is a current World Boxing Association champion in the super-middleweight division. He was one of boxing’s rising stars, although recently he was making more of a name for himself in the courtroom squaring off with his former promoter Dan Goossen, who passed in late September.

Bellew is a former three-time heavyweight champion in the Amateur Boxing Association of England league as well as a former light heavyweight champion in the Commonwealth league. He next fights Nathan Cleverly in a rematch Nov. 22.

‘Dear White People’ Star Tessa Thompson Joins Sylvester Stallone in ‘Creed’
DECEMBER 16, 2014 | 05:43PM PT Dave McNary

“Dear White People” and “Selma” star Tessa Thompson has come on board MGM’s boxing drama “Creed” opposite Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan.

Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”) is directing from a script he co-wrote with Aaron Covington. Stallone will bring back his Rocky Balboa character as a trainer for the grandson of Apollo Creed, portrayed by Carl Weathers in 1976’s “Rocky.”

Producers are Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff, Stallone and Kevin King.

Thompson plays the host of the titular radio show in “Dear White People,” for which she won a breakthrough actress award from the Gotham Awards, and civil rights activist Diane Nash in “Selma.” She is repped by Greene & Associates, Mosaic and Jackoway Tyerman.