Oz soap star will be hit as Ken Buchanan

Home and Away’s Ryan Kwanten, 36, will play the Edinburgh-born fighter in Hands of Stone, starring Robert De Niro.

The film is a biopic of Ken’s former arch-rival Roberto Duran from Panama.

Shooting begins in South America this summer.

Ken, 67, said: “Ryan’s a handsome lad – like myself! “I’m glad they picked him.

“If they’d done a movie like this years ago, my pal Sean Connery could have been involved.”

Ken became the world lightweight champion in 1970 but lost the title to Duran two years later at New York’s Madison Square Garden. But the pair are now good friends. Ken added: “I’m pleased to see him getting recognition like this.”