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Watched this yesterday, it's from 1999, got nominated for an Oscar. It's about a boxing trainer called Harry Keitt, he comes from a rough background, drugs, guns, prison, but turned his life around and now runs the local gym. He comes across like a real nice guy who genuinely cares for the boxers. I hadn't heard of him but he went on to train John Duddy and a few others but no champions.
It focuses on 3 fighters training for the Golden Gloves. A young kid who drops out of school as he thinks he'll be the greatest ever and then gets stopped in the first round. Lulz. There's a female fighter who gets arrested for crack possession with intent to supply during the filming and goes on trial the same week as the finals, she wins her early fights but then can't make the gold medal match as she's in court, is found guilty and gets sentenced to 4 1/2 years. Shame as she was pretty good and it was her uncle dealing not her but they shared a house.
The third fighter was the most talented, George Walton, he was a beast and won the final by KO. Then he went pro and straight away you see the sharks circling, a manager signs him up but then tells him he wants him to train with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad instead. Without his original trainer/mentor to guide him he goes to the gym less often and you see him frustrated with how things are going, especially when he confronts his manager about not getting paid for fighting and gets told that's the deal he signed (he got a monthly salary instead) and he feels misled in what he agreed to and how a lot of promises were made and never stuck to.
You see Harry question the logic of replacing him just because EMM has trained world champs, asking if any fighter he develops from nothing into a national amateur champion gets taken off him before going pro, how would he ever get a pro champion?
Walton was about 3-0 when the film ends. He finished 20-4, only person to beat him by KO was Danny Jacobs so he didn't have a bad career but it does feel like he would've been a lot happier and better off if he could've stayed with his trainer and avoided the user/manipulator manager/promoter types at least until he was further along in development.
TL-DR: Pretty good, interesting low budget boxing documentary, no one famous in it or topless women though.
It focuses on 3 fighters training for the Golden Gloves. A young kid who drops out of school as he thinks he'll be the greatest ever and then gets stopped in the first round. Lulz. There's a female fighter who gets arrested for crack possession with intent to supply during the filming and goes on trial the same week as the finals, she wins her early fights but then can't make the gold medal match as she's in court, is found guilty and gets sentenced to 4 1/2 years. Shame as she was pretty good and it was her uncle dealing not her but they shared a house.
The third fighter was the most talented, George Walton, he was a beast and won the final by KO. Then he went pro and straight away you see the sharks circling, a manager signs him up but then tells him he wants him to train with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad instead. Without his original trainer/mentor to guide him he goes to the gym less often and you see him frustrated with how things are going, especially when he confronts his manager about not getting paid for fighting and gets told that's the deal he signed (he got a monthly salary instead) and he feels misled in what he agreed to and how a lot of promises were made and never stuck to.
You see Harry question the logic of replacing him just because EMM has trained world champs, asking if any fighter he develops from nothing into a national amateur champion gets taken off him before going pro, how would he ever get a pro champion?
Walton was about 3-0 when the film ends. He finished 20-4, only person to beat him by KO was Danny Jacobs so he didn't have a bad career but it does feel like he would've been a lot happier and better off if he could've stayed with his trainer and avoided the user/manipulator manager/promoter types at least until he was further along in development.
TL-DR: Pretty good, interesting low budget boxing documentary, no one famous in it or topless women though.