Marco Ramirez’s fictional 90-minute introduction to “The Fight of the Century” in Nevada in 1910 is directed by Madani Younis. The boxers are Jack Jackson, the African American heavy weight champion of the world and James J Jeffries, the White Champion. Segregation is rife. No White Champion until then had ever fought a Black Champion.
For Jackson it is not a race or a money issue. He does not want to be the Black Champion. He wants to be Champion, period. The question is should he? His sister warns him that White Americans will never recognize the fight and that whether he wins or loses, the Blacks will lose out and there will be riots and killings.
There are excellent punchy performances by Nicholas Pinnock, totally convincing as the muscular, swaggering Black Champ, and by Ewan Stewart as his dedicated White Promoter. The action is set inside a boxing ring with the audience on four sides. The bouts are expressionistic. The actors do not actually hit each other. It is all highly stylized with the cast providing the sound effects; and very effective it is, too.