Sailor O'Connor (Dominic Purcell) is a retired boxer, working as a welder. His mom (Sheila McCarthy) claims he is "used up and broken." She is dying from cancer and bitter at God. She wants to see the "old country" one more time before she dies. Sailor wants to go into the ring to obtain a purse so she can go.

As the fight begins the film is consumed with flashbacks, at times getting only 30 seconds of fighting before we go back in time again. During these flashbacks we get to see the life of the other fighter King Solomon (Izaak Smith),newly married with a baby on the way. He has a mother issue also. We get to see behind the scenes of the promotion and the mystery of Diane (Famke Janssen) the woman who has done the "unforgivable." The film slowly builds levels of complexity around a single fight.

I enjoyed the opening of the reading of Percival, and the quick establishment of character. This is not a film about boxing, but that of a fighter. a man who refuses to lay down both in the ring and in life...in case you missed the symbolism.

The film was better than expected, and has that life drama that "Lifetime" fans can enjoy as well.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. Brief sex talk.

Now let me explain my header to this review. I already think that "A Fighting Man" was really something. In fact, I thought it was really good. Considering I went into expecting a schlocky and silly attempt at making some sort of "Rocky" knock-off. I watched it because I still really like Dominic Purcell from his Prison Break days and the short lived but amazing John Doe TV Series. Unfortunately Purcell has descended into straight to video, horribly campy sort of stuff so I had pretty low expectations. Certainly, there were aspects of A Fighting Man that showed its independent roots but overall the film is very well made, inspiring, interesting, well written and unique in its own way in the boxing drama genre. A Fighting Man is very unique in fact and in the beginning of the film I wasn't sure I liked how it was laid out. Instead it won me over and made it all the more appealing. Instead of building to a big fight at the end, the entire film is the "big fight" and it flashes back to what brought these two men together. Neither is a villain, they both have very different backgrounds and different reasons for stepping into the ring. The rivalry is there and as expected it turns into a deep admiration for each other. Perhaps slightly predictable but no less inspiring and wonderful to watch.

There are some less than stellar performances in the film and there are some very good performances in the film. Dominic Purcell headlines the cast as an ageing Irish boxer who really never hit his peak but has the distinguished record of having never been knocked down in the ring. This is sort of a gimmicky part of his character but it ends up driving the inevitable climax that very nearly brought me to tears. Purcell starts out with some so-so charisma on screen but then he finds his footing and you start to really relate to his character. Yes, in some ways he's doing his best Rocky clone but there is enough different about his character. Certainly he struggles with everyone's opinion that he's washed up and over the hill. It was a great character for him. Izaak Smith was very good right from the beginning as a young hot shot boxer who descended into drugs and found himself disgraced. Smith was really terrific. He gives a very powerful performance and the chemistry between him and Purcell is decent and ends up being excellent in the closing scenes. One of the best things about this film and the smartest thing they could have done was to enlist veteran actors James Caan and Louis Gossett Jr. as the respective trainers. Their roles are unfortunately small but very effective and their charisma is undeniable. I desperately wanted to see more from both of them and their relationship to their individual boxer. Still the scenes between Caan and Purcell were particularly good. Most of the supporting cast is okay at best. I'm not sure why they even cast Famke Janssen as her character and story were a bit much and felt like overkill though they were aiming for a story of redemption and emotion. Adam Beach was flat out awful. He literally dragged down the cast as a campy and obnoxious fight promoter. The character might have been decent but Beach was terrible. Kim Coates who is excellent in Sons of Anarchy also felt very out of place and campy as a Priest trying to reach out to Purcell's dying mother. He was an unnecessary character too. Sheila McCarthy was very good in a small role as Purcell's mother. She was probably the best in the supporting cast.

Any lover of Boxing films I think will truly appreciate this. It actually was a much better crafted story than "Grudge Match" and while it certainly wasn't as brilliant as "Rocky" it was a very solid effort. The fight choreography was near perfect. There was nothing cheap or underplayed when it came to the fight itself. Damian Lee writes and directs the film but he's not an amateur. He's been making films for a very long time and despite some of them being straight to video I think this guy has talent and artistic vision. He hit all the right notes in my books. Granted, I had low expectations but I am never opposed to being surprised and this truly entertained and is one I would absolutely watch again. With a stronger cast, more financial backing and a more critically respected director, this could have been a huge success with critics. But for a small independent, straight to video release, this absolutely hits a home run in my book. Give it a chance and sit back and enjoy it. It will make you cheer and maybe even cry a little. 8.5/10

I expected very little from this movie. I noticed I wasn't really in the mood for a movie after a couple minutes watching it, but I was too lazy to turn it off. And I'm happy I didn't. I wasn't really into the movie in the beginning, and I didn't understand why they had to cut off the fighting scene all the time with these flashbacks. However after a couple, these flashbacks started telling a compelling back-story of the older fighter. So I naturally parted with him, since I'm always trying to find a hero and a villain in the movies. Then the movie slowly introduced the back-story of the other fighter and I was torn. Who am I rooting for now? What is this? "Too many feels!"

I don't want to tell too much of the story, but it follows two boxers who have their own reasons for stepping into the ring. And this movie tells those stories in a unique way. I don't think I've ever seen a fighting movie where there was only one fight, but this was perfect. I really enjoyed the movie, and if you like deeper, emotional fighting or sports movies, this movie is a great pick for both you and girl on any night of the week.