Every boxing film needs a villain and that is exactly what we got in Miguel “Magic” Escobar, a Hispanic thug who tried to bait Billy “The Great” Hope into to defending his Light Heavyweight Title against him.  He managed to eventually win the title but you don’t have to have watched the film to know whom he would defend that title against do you?

You have to respect the method acting of Jake Gyllenhaal who looked every bit of the Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion he portrayed.  As Billy “The Great” Hope, Gyllenhaal’s character undergoes a modern twist of the boxer struggling for redemption after his wife was accidentally shot following a brawl instigated by up and coming contender, Miguel Escobar a la Clubber Lang in Rocky III…minus the shooting of course. (though didn’t Lang inadvertently lead to Mickey’s death).