For New York's secret brawlers, 'Fighting' isn't just a film story
BY Robert Dominguez
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 19th 2009, 4:00 AM
Focus Features
A couple of years removed from the constant headaches, swollen eyes, bloody noses and chipped teeth, Des is finally breaking the first rule of his former vocation.
He’s talking about being in a fight club.
Like the main character in the new film “Fighting,” opening Friday, Des spent many a late night punching, kicking and grappling with other young men in secret locations around the city while a bloodthirsty crowd egged the combatants on.
For Des, a Manhattan native in his mid-20s, the clandestine brawls were nothing less than human ****fights. Losers went home bruised, battered and bloody. Winners often went home the same, but a few hundred bucks richer.
“I did it because I needed the money,” says Des (not his real name). “And because I just wanted to fight.”
Trained in such martial arts as wing chun and muay thai kick boxing, Des was introduced to the underground fight scene by one of his teachers. Typical locations, he says, were the basements of retail stores in Manhattan and the Bronx.
“The managers of these places all had a connection, and they’d get news of a fight out through word of mouth,” says Des. “One place was this big store on the East Side, where the manager would lock up at 11, have us come in through a grate in the sidewalk, and throw fights in the storeroom downstairs.”
Shirtless, shoeless and bareknuckled, fighters would square off in these dank, dark spaces, surrounded by a few dozen screaming onlookers wagering on the outcomes of up to 10 bouts a night. Des says his opponents were other martial arts students and the occasional neighborhood tough guy, and the only basic rule was no strikes to the groin.
“Everyone wanted to fight me because I didn’t have a lot of muscles and I wasn’t very talkative,” recalls Des. “That’s cool. I didn’t mind that they underestimated me. I’ve had my chin cut open and my tooth got cracked, but I won more than I lost.”
“A lot of these bouts can be pretty brutal,” says Andrew Montanez, a professional mixed martial artist who brawled in dozens of underground fights before turning pro.
“It’s usually two guys with full-time jobs who don’t have a lot of skills. They don’t wear gloves or even cups, and it can get pretty crazy.”
It’s pretty much the same crazy, gritty and violent world depicted in “Fighting,” which stars Channing Tatum as a *loner whose mano-a-mano skills are exploited by a shady promoter (Terrence Howard) in a series of underground matches around New York City.
Except that Dito Montiel, the film’s director, says the plot was loosely inspired by legal mixed martial arts bouts — like the Ultimate Fighting Championship events made popular on pay-per-view — rather than real underground fight clubs.
“I didn’t do any research into that,” says Montiel, who grew up in Astoria. “I’ve had friends who did it and I know it exists, but this is more about pretty straight-ahead brawling. The movie’s about a guy who goes to different neighborhoods, fighting guys.”
Yet some martial arts experts think the film will cast a negative light on their profession, anyway — mixed martial arts events are banned in New York State precisely because legislators are under the impression it’s dangerous, says David Ross, owner and sifu (teacher) of New York San Da, a Manhattan martial arts school.
“It’s not street fighting, it’s a sport,” says Ross. “People train very hard to do it, there’s a set of rules and it’s safe, and every time a movie like this or ‘Fight Club’ comes out, it’s unfortunate. It glorifies these illegal fights and it paints us in a bad way.”
According to one local promoter, however, some martial arts schools are actually guilty of holding their own illegal fight nights.
“I personally know of places that pull the curtains down and turn the lights low after hours,” says John McFeely, who promotes the legal “Fight Club” kick boxing series of bouts at the Long Island Marriott in Uniondale.
“Fighting” may not be totally accurate, but it does get one thing right — betting is a big part of the underground combat scene.
“Cash definitely exchanges hands, though it’s not usually big money,” says Montanez. “A lot of times it’s teams (of fighters) betting, like, $500 against each other.”
Des, who eventually quit fighting to pursue an acting career — “I didn’t want my face to keep getting messed up,” he says — learned the hard way there’s no money in this particular blood sport.
“On my best night, I fought three hard fights, won all of them, and came home with $950,” says Des.
“But one guy elbowed me in the mouth and cracked my tooth. It cost me $800 to fix it. So basically I got all busted up for just $150 bucks.”
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Originally Posted by David Jamieson
