Art will imitate life for Victor Ortiz as he prepares for his next acting role…

The Weinstein Company and director Antoine Fuqua have added the 27-year-old Mexican-American former-WBC-Welterweight-Champion-turned actor to the cast of their boxing pic Southpaw.

Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, as well as Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, the film centers on an  up-and-coming fighter who loses everything in a moment of rage and has to start from the bottom to get his life back.

Ortiz will portray Ramone, a flyweight kid from the streets with real sparring potential. The character parallels Ortiz’s own rags-to-riches story of rising from childhood as a foster kid, to brawling his way to the championship belt in 2011.

Sons Of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter wrote the script for Southpaw, which also stars Miguel Gomez.

It’s the second significant role for Ortiz, who makes his feature film debut later this summer as one of the Young Expendables in Expendables 3. He was personally selected for the role by Sylvester Stallone.

Shooting on Southpaw just began in Pittsburgh.