A brutal backstreets boxing picture, with all the ingredients beloved of filmgoers down the years. The crooked promoter (Brian Dennehy) who blackmails our young hero (James Marshall) into staying in the (illegal) ring. The dirty fighter who blinds and kills Marshall's best friend. The loyal girlfriend, the promoter's moll, the feckless father, the promoter's hustler and the friend (Cuba Gooding Jr, mysteriously billed above Marshall) who must be fought and maybe killed in the ring. They're all here, residents from Hollywood's boxing hall of fame, with the twist that the promoter is an ex-light heavyweight champ who himself provides the final opponent when our hero makes his bid to break free and seek a college education. Not a punching cliché fails to land. As you reel off to bed, the producers hope you may be too punch-drunk to remember where you've seen it all before.

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