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MANILA, Philippines – Boxing movies are cool.
The Rocky franchise helped expose new audiences to the Sweet Science and earned Sylvester Stallone a spot in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Million Dollar Baby and Girlfight were forceful tributes to the tough women who step between the ropes, while Robert DeNiro’s portrayal of former middleweight champion Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull earned him an Oscar for Best Actor.
In all boxing movies, there are trade-offs with historical accuracy and realism that are just a part of the Hollywood experience, but the faux pas in the upcoming boxing drama Southpaw is just hard to swallow.
Southpaw stars Hollywood powerhouses Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and Rachel McAdams, and gets a boost in credibility with former WBC welterweight titleholder Victor Ortiz and sometimes boxing promoter Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson playing major roles.
Cameos from boxing referee Tony Weeks, plus HBO Boxing commentators Jim Lampley and Roy Jones Jr don’t hurt, either.
The movie title is evocative – a boxer going against the grain trying to fight his way against the odds. There’s only one problem – Gyllenhaal’s character Billy Hope isn’t a southpaw.
A southpaw is a boxer who fights out of a stance with his right foot in front of the left, using his right hand to jab and left hand in the back to throw crosses. Promotional cut-outs in movie theaters for the film that opens July 24 in the United States show Hope as a fighter whose left foot is in front – an orthodox stance.
The blunder has drawn criticism from boxing circles on social media, with middleweight contender Caleb Truax commenting “That makes me lose almost all interest in the movie.”
British boxing trainer/promoter David Coldwell posted a photo of the cut-out, daring boxing fans to spot the mistake for themselves.
The movie trailer also shows Gyllenhaal fighting out of a right-handed stance. There are also other inconsistencies that die-hard boxing observers are sure to pick up on, like Billy Hope being the IBF champion but wearing a WBC patch on his trunks.
Perhaps – just perhaps – the marketing team for the movie thought that showing Gyllenhaal in an orthodox stance in promotional materials would create organic chatter and build buzz for the movie.
And when moviegoers (the few who actually know what a southpaw is) sit down and watch, they’ll be pleasantly surprised at the trick the marketing people pulled.
Or perhaps there is is some plot twist involved that explains the whole mix-up.
Either way, the movie’s plot looks enjoyable enough and the movie gives off the same modern day grittiness of The Fighter. Here’s hoping that Hollywood has a trick up its sleeve that we’re not anticipating.
And if you want to be inspired by fighters overcoming the odds, go to YouTube and watch old clips of Manny Pacquiao, Arturo Gatti or Diego Corrales for the real experience. – Rappler.com
Ryan Songalia is the sports editor of Rappler, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to The Ring magazine. He can be reached at ryan.songalia@rappler.com. Follow him on Twitter: @RyanSongalia.
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