By Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY

Check out this shocking picture of Jake Gyllenhaal, the first released from his boxer role in "Southpaw."

Insane.

Director Antoine Fuqua promised us last month that we wouldn't recognize Gyllenhaal in the role, due out in 2015. And that's no lie. Gyllenhaal is a ripped beast and has clearly taken a beating.

Gyllenhaal plays Billy "The Great" Hope, a boxer on top of the world until a tragic accident leaves his wife dead and sends him into a downward spiral. He eventually finds a former boxer Tick, played by Forest Whitaker, who takes him under his wing "so long as he agrees to his strict ethos."

That's one serious ethos. Especially impressive considering where Gyllenhaal came from in "Nightcrawler," a role in which he lost 30 pounds to portray a cunning news cameraman.

"Southpaw is the other end of the spectrum." The industry website Deadline, which broke the picture Friday, said the role would likely put Gyllenhaal in the same league as Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull" and Denzel Washington in "The Hurricane."

"We literally turned him into a beast," Fuqua told the website.