Synopsis

The boxing ring – a circle of terror, really – existed in July of 1931 at the Chicago Sports Arena much as it did in a hundred other arenas across the nation. It was a space where young men, hardened by reform schools and cramped tenements, willing to risk blood and bone, sought a path beyond the crushing weight of poverty. Yet, the fighters themselves received but a meager share of the rewards; the lion's share flowed to the gangsters who pulled the strings.