The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Eric Drath recounts a great boxing story but in doing so defiles it. From the Michael Moore school of documentary making, he takes an already exploited, broken man and exploits him some more - always looking for a money shot.Sending Mr Resto to see his estranged family and then, without prior warning to see the Collins family was beyond crass.Any documentary maker who needs to put his own face in his film is flawed. It's a great story and actually does unearth new evidence about the tragedy. It's just a pity that the project was devoid of integrity, empathy and compassion.Watch Ring of Fire or No Mas instead.

Luis Resto mans up and admits to having loaded gloves when he fought (and nearly killed) Billy Collins, Jr. It was Collins, Sr., who caught Resto and his accomplice, the dirty "Panama" Lewis, in the act. Although Lewis appears to have gotten away with attempted murder, his underhanded tactics in this fight raise some interesting questions: for years, he trained (or at least assisted in the training of) none other than "Manos de Piedra" ("Hands of Stone") himself, Roberto Duran. More than once, opponents complained that Duran's gloves were loaded. Nothing ever came of any of the charges (at least, not that I know of), but Lewis also worked the corner of Aaron Pryor against Alexis Arguello. Pryor twice gave Arguello a fearsome beating. (I've watched these two fights several times and wondered what Lewis meant when- in a clip that's shown in this documentary- he asks specifically for a water bottle that he had "mixed." Now I know.) Resto comes clean (finally), but Lewis ducks and dodges to this day. The fact that so unsavory a character is still training fighters is all the more reason why a boxing commission of the type espoused by Teddy Atlas is needed. Boxing has YET to step out of The Dark Ages and into the light. Consider the all too recent case of Antonio Margarito: the murderous Margarito seemed to be a fighter on the rise (he "stopped" Kermit Citron and Miguel Cotto) before Shane Mosley's trainer caught Margarito with loaded gloves before their fight. Margarito's hands were re-wrapped... and Mosley knocked him out. Without the plaster cast, Margarito stood exposed (like Resto) for the fraud he was/is. (And Margarito is once again being licensed to fight in this country!) Everyone involved in these fights, from the promoters and matchmakers to the broadcasting companies and the ringside announcers, is responsible to one degree or another for the safety of these fighters. In the words of Roberto Duran himself: "No mas." ("No more.") Boxing's dangerous enough as it is.

Just finished this excellent feature length documentary that details an infamous (in the boxing world at least) 1983 bout between undefeated prospect Billy Collins, Jr. and the guy he was supposed to beat, Luis Resto. The end result is kind of a THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988) for the boxing world as the film examines the illegal activity that occurred during the bout and the tragic consequences it had on a multitude of lives. It certainly exposes the sleaziest side of boxing and you can't help but feel sorry for the guilt-ridden Resto who bares his soul for the filmmakers. Lewis, on the other hand, is a piece of work. I've never seen a more reprehensible human being in my entire life. First time director Eric Drath used to be a boxing agent and he handles a majority of the material well. There is one hugely manipulative misstep though with Drath having Resto travel to Tennessee to apologize to Collins' family, despite their earlier request of not wanting anything to do with the documentary. Regardless, this can be seen as being much more than about dirty boxing - it showcases the workings of the human conscience.

Is this what constitutes documentary film-making? A non-story revisited. I'm sure the "director" figured the story of an uneducated immigrant athlete beaten down by the powers above would make for an interesting story, too bad the facts got in the way. Nice try Drath Vader. The film's focus Louie Resto, seems to be in over his head in every situation he has ever encountered. In Resto's case, allowing this reality show producer/pariah to follow him around, reshaping his past and the facts, was monetarily beneficial, but morally bankrupt. The "confrontation" between Resto and his former manager, may have been the saddest misuse of the documentary format. Not everyone who wants to tell your story to the world should be trusted.