It’s 1972, and Fred Dobbs is preparing for the Schoolboy Boxing Championships. His trainer, who also happens to be his father, thinks he’s the next great white hope. Two years of training have led up to this climatic night. There’s just one problem. Fred can’t box. In the same year Gustavo White, a Cuban boxing legend prepares for the biggest fight of his life at the Munich Olympics. Every last second of his 25 years earth have been leading up to this challenge - he is widely tipped to take gold . He doesn’t. Adrift and alone, the two men’s paths cross almost 40 years later. Fred is an executive at a debt recovery firm who’s on his way out; his aggressive younger boss thinks he’s past it and demotes him to the call centre. Gustavo has turned his back on boxing - far from home, with his boxing club bankrupt and repossessed, he scratches a living as a gardener. Fred is forced to participate in a work yuppie boxing event, Gus agrees to train him and both men are thrown back into the boxing fray for what will be the most important fight of their lives.