Emmet Sullivan writes:
Fight Club just got a whole lot more real. It turns out Brad Pitt (pictured far left) really is a no-holds-barred fighter – as a member of the Australian Olympic boxing team. The Aussie Pitt, 25, quit his day job as a painter to train as a heavyweight boxer for the 2008 Games. And while he still gets the occasional taunt about his name, he's learned to put up with it. "Mate, I've been living with that other bloke's name for years, it doesn't worry me at all,'' he told Australia's Herald Sun while practicing.

His mother said he found out about his more famous counterpart during elementary school, when a child brought in a newspaper clip about the actor during show and tell. "He likes to be known for his talent, not his name," his mother Leanne told Australia's The Age. Talent he has. Ranked 33rd in the World Championships in Chicago in 2007, he's gearing up for a medal run in Beijing after a grueling training session in Thailand to acclimate himself to Chinese conditions, and is ready to make a name for himself – his own name. "I've always been Brad," he tells the Daily Telegraph. "Let him change his name."

UPDATE (August 13, 2008)

Brad Pitt loses Olympic heavyweight bout

People reports:
After a hard-fought preliminary match-up against Mohammed Arjaoui of Morocco, Australia's boxer Brad Pitt, 26, lost on points. "I definitely thought I had come back after the second round," he said after the bout. "I thought I was up by one point. I was confident I could get through – I had a good draw. I can't complain, though. That's just the way it goes." As for what he plans to do next, Pitt said, "I'm just going to go home, have a holiday and not think about anything."