Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward swing in the glorious ninth round of their first fight. Gatti?s face contorts with each clean, hard punch that lands from Ward. And all of Ward?s punches are landing, every single one clean, hard and damaging.
These are men, the epitome of strength and bravery.
We montage through vicious knockouts, the victims collapsing and crashing, the victors exultant, the losers lifeless.
We transition from a gladiator arena built in Europe more than 2000 years ago, now empty, to a bullring in present-day Mexico, a crowd roaring. On this night within, a boxer floors his opponent.
We hear the insight of those long involved in what is called a sweet science but remains a brutal trade.
?You put your life on the line when you get in the ring, and that?s the bottom line because somebody is trying to kill you, and the object of boxing is to render the other guy unconscious,? says Johnny Ortiz, trainer, manager, radio host and writer.
?A caveman can understand boxing,? says George Chuvalo, former heavyweight contender.
?It?s barbaric, but people love that,? says trainer Manny Steward. ?It?s still the epitome of excitement.?
We turn to an often unspoken reality.
Alex Ramos of the Retired Boxers Foundation: ?There?s another side of boxing that people should know about.?
We see what he means.
An elderly man wearing a black helmet sits in a chair, unresponsive. ?Phil,? a woman says. ?Look at me,? she says. ?Come on champ.?
She is a caretaker in a Portland, Ore., nursing home. He is Phil Moyer, a middleweight who fought five decades ago, once defeating Sugar Ray Robinson. So, too, did his brother, Denny Moyer, also helmeted, shown living in the same facility and in similar condition.
These are men, mortal and vulnerable. Denny died last year. Phil is now confined to a wheelchair.
These are the opening minutes of ?After the Last Round,? a documentary examining how fighters suffer damage, life-altering and life-taking; why they continue to step into the ring despite this; and what happens to them once they stop taking punches and try to continue with life after boxing ? what remains of it.
The film?s executive producer is Tom Moyer, who is Phil and Denny Moyer?s cousin. The narrative is pieced together by Ryan Pettey (who also is the director) and Patrick Moyer, Tom?s son.
Their subjects are gladiators only for a few nights a year, and only for an hour or so on those nights. Though they spar and train and live for those nights in the ring, they also have families, sides of them we do not see during their careers. We only think of them as performers. We rarely remember them once they retire. Our attention turns to those younger, better, relevant.
