[man] The world over, cultures have been shapedÂ through combat.
Each culture unique in their approach to scratch out their survival.
I'm Frank Grillo.
I'm an actor...
and a lifelong fight enthusiast.
But this isn't a show about fighting.
This is a show about people who fight.
[men shouting]
[shouting]
[Grillo] Mexico.
Home to some of the greatest fighters the sport of boxing has ever known.
Olivares...
Macías...
Sánchez...
Zárate.
[speaking Spanish]
[Grillo] And even if the names aren't familiar,
the Mexican style of boxing probably is.
Seek...
and destroy.
[man speaking Spanish] Well, for starters, it has always been known
that Tepito is the heaviest town of Mexico City.
[speaks Spanish] There's a famous saying, "Tepito exists because it resists."
[speaks Spanish]Â Here in Tepito, the truth is you have to be very strong
to survive and to earn your daily bread.
[Jorge Vera speaks Spanish] We are Catholics. We were a poor family,
so we came to church every eight days.
The church wants us to live in peace.
There is violence, theft, crimes every day,
and not only here but everywhere.
You know that violence and crime can be found everywhere.
This neighborhood feeds me and has fed me.
I was an amateur boxer, an Olympic boxer, a professional boxer.
I feel good coming from this neighborhood, always fighting hard.
"Where are you from?" From Tepito. Yes, I would say it with great pride.
It comes from the heart.
To be a Tepiteño is a beautiful thing.
There is a phrase that says,Â "To be a Tepiteño is a goddamned good thing."
Mexico City itself is probably one
of the more dangerous places in Mexico.
Corruption...
gangs.
It's a scary place.
Inside of Mexico City lies Tepito,
which is the epicenter of all of that.
This is probably the most dangerous area in Mexico City, is Tepito.
And inside of Tepito
is a gym,
where Jorge Vera trains...
has trained many champions. He's been here for a long time.
And this is a safe haven
inside of Tepito for young Mexican kids
who don't know if they want to go...
one route and be boxers, professional fighters, amateur fighters
or go another route and work
on the side of corruption, gangs, drugs, all the stuff that is necessary
to survive in Tepito in Mexico City.
- Hey! - Hola.
- Hello, brother. - Hola.
- Como estas? - Como estas?
- Nice to meet you, Jorge. - Okay.
Yes.
That's Jorge Vera. That's the man right there.
[speaking Spanish]
[Grillo] If this gym didn't exist in Tepito,
if there was no sanctuary, there was no crossroads here,
what would happen to a lot of these kids?
[Vera speaking Spanish] Look, if this gym wereÂ to disappear one day,
the guys are already thinking other things.
So, without the gym, instead of coming to train,
they would start doing those bad things.
This is a sport that helps them get ahead.
The sport of boxing is wonderful.
If you practice it in earnest, you will stand out. That's what Tepito is.
The Rough Neighborhood of Champions.
When we box, tell him to go easy.
- [Grillo laughs] - No!
[Grillo] Okay. Okay.
[Vera] I'm your friend. I will train you well.
Two jabs, one two and a right.
One, two and a right.
Move your head, bob around.
I'm here, move there.
Over, there. Box.
Let's go 10!
[Grillo] Mexican boxing is about fighting in the pocket.
Very rarely backing up.
Very rarely surrendering.
Their way of surrendering is being knocked out or TKO.
These are guys that...
they pride themselves on being the toughest in the ring.
It's a style that has been developed
through generations. It's just a matter of understanding the culture.
British fighters are more classical fighters with technique,
with movement in the ring,
but the Mexican fighters are brawlers.
They go in, and they have the biggest heart.
They're willing to take the punch in order to land their punch.
- [grunting] - [Grillo] Yeah? Gracias.
That's the way it is. Always going forward, fighting or dying.
Because, thanks to God, or regretfully so,
there is no other way to survive here.
[shouting, grunting]
Holy shit!
[speaking Spanish] We, Mexican boxers, are told we are warriors in the ring.
I leave my heart and soul in the ring.
We like to go to the front and put up a fight and put on a show.
I think boxing is a contact sport, and people like to see punches.
They like to see you tear up your soul in the ring.
And as a Mexican boxer, that's what I do. I'm a warrior in the ring.
- [speaks Spanish] - [grunting]
[speaking Spanish] I describe the Mexican style...
We have balls. We're very aggressive.
If we feel hurt, we are going to fight even harder.
We're not going to die on the line.
We're not common people.
[grunting]
[speaks Spanish]
He's one of the best trainers in the world.
One of the best trainers in the world.
[laughing]
[Grillo] Today, what's the importance of boxingÂ to the culture of Mexico?
How important is it?
[speaking Spanish] Boxing... that's all.
I mean, everyone knows Mexico for boxing.
It's our culture.
- We're a warrior race. - Exactly. A warrior race.
[Jorge Ocampo Villegas] Fighting was a way to get ahead.
And currently, culturally, it's the way
a person can abandon a lower social stratum,
just like how they cross the border to have a better life.
They do it through boxing, too. Through sports.
It's a badge of honor when a fighter says, "I fight like a Mexican."
- Yeah! - You know what I mean?
"I fight like a Mexican."
Triple G says, "I fight like a Mexican!"
- McGregor! - I forced him to fight like a Mexican!
[Manuel Lopez] Okay.
- [speaks Spanish] - [grunting]
[Lopez] Go, go, go, go!
[laughing]
- Thank you. - Good, good. Thank you, thank you.
[Grillo] The Mexican style has never been more singularly personified
than in the country's greatest champion...
Julio César Chavez.
Everywhere in the world you go, the style of Mexican boxing...
Can you tell me a little about the origin of why Mexican boxing is that...?
[speaking Spanish] Unfortunately or fortunately,Â Mexicans are hot-blooded.
And all Mexican boxers,
the majority come from poor families.
And so in order to help your family,
you kill yourself in the ring to bring money to your family.
This is why Mexicans give it all in the ring.
This is why we're always moving forwards and forwards. Why?
Because we all come from very poor homes.
It's not about money to buy a Bentley.
- No. - [Grillo] It's familia..
[Julio César Chavez] It's for the family.
- This is why we are warriors, us Mexicans. - [Grillo] Right.
[speaking Spanish] The country is poor,
even though it has a lot of natural wealth.
But when it comes to money,
there are more poor people than rich people,
and that makes them hungry to win,
to strive to get forward and never give up.
[Grillo] If he didn't find boxing at such a young age,
where would he be today?
President! [laughs]
President.
- President! - [laughing]
It's amazing. It's a Sunday afternoon,
and insteadÂ of going for a jog, you come here and you box.
[man speaking Spanish]
[cheering]
[chanting]
[shouting]
[cheering]
Oh!
[cheering]
That's a nice overhand right.
[speaking Spanish]
Man, Mexican boxing's Mexican boxing.
It doesn't matter if it's boys, girls, men or women.
They all fight like Mexicans.
Bad-ass!
[shouting]
- [bell rings] - [cheering]
Good! Yeah. All right! Congratulations.
- That's fight number six. - Number six.
- 6-0? - Yeah.
Undefeated?
So tell me how important it is for young ladies
in Mexico City to find something like boxing
to keep them out of trouble.
[speaking Spanish] She has a six-year-old son,
and she has left behind many things because of the sport.
It's very important for them to come here
and get away from bad influence within our city,
within the social circle that surrounds us.
Why? Because there are many bad things,
a lot of vice, a lot of evil in this city.
[speaking Spanish] Well, I've focused a lot on boxing.
I can openly say that I was an alcoholic and drug addict.
It has helped me a lot. I was very negative. I was into bad things.
You know, you could come here and you'd just see two young ladies boxing
if you don't know the story.
And we come to learn that she's fighting to take care of her family.
She's fighting for pride.
She's fighting to stay off the streets, and she's succeeding.
She's being victorious in all aspects of this.
So, tell her I admire her a great deal.
[speaking Spanish] This is a knife through a rose.
This is my nickname, "Crazy."
My son's name, Alex.
These are cuts. I told you I had emotional problems,
and I would cut myself.
I fought with everyone before.
I had no discipline. I was a rebel.
I didn't care about anything.
To put it bluntly, I drank a lot. I started drinking when I was very young.
I usedÂ drugs. I was bad. Everything was bad in my life.
Everything was very negative.
When I went into boxing, my life changed.
My life changed.
[woman speaking Spanish] It has helped my daughter get ahead.
We went through a very difficult time with her.
I tell her, "I don't like boxing, but I support you.
Don't ask me to go and see you.
I will support you from here with my prayers."
[speaking Spanish] It was a very difficult situation.
I couldn't make head or tails of it,
not find the way to get her out of there.
I got involved.
I would be out at three in the morning, five in the morning, looking for her.
I said to myself, "I need to help my daughter."
And I started to get involved.
I said, "If I don't stop drinking, I am going to be lost,"
because several times, I was on the edge of death.
I went to the hospital due to an overdose.
I would see my son and I would cry.
And I would pray to God and ask him to help me.
I knelt several times in the square, "Help me, Jesus,"
crying with all the humility in the world.
Several times, my mother as a witness,
she would see me weeping, feeling hopeless,
wanting to escape drugs and alcohol.
It has been the biggest challenge in my life,
to get my daughter off drugs.
So I decided to help her with everything.
"What do you want to do? Let's go."
My wife didn't want me to do that. "You're crazy!
I don't want my daughter to box. They're going to hurt her."
"No," I said, "she has that mettle."
[speaking Spanish]Â My mother did not want me toÂ become a boxer.
When I told her, "Mom, I want to be a boxer,"
she said, "You're crazy! Your brothers come home beaten up."
I told her, "Give me the chance to fight ten bouts.
If I lose one, I'll retire."
[Grillo] And eventually, he did lose...
after 90 fights, after super-stardom.
That stardom was never more on display then when in 1993,
132,000 of his fellow countrymen
came to watch Chávez fight in the famed Estadio Azteca.
I was still in my prime.
I was 32 years old.
I was undefeated. I hadn't lost any fights.
You have to be inside that ring and have that experience
to understand what I felt.
I felt a lot of emotion, but at the same time,
I felt a huge commitment and weight on me.
You understand? I could not lose in front of my people.
Haugen had insulted me and been very disrespectful.
So I definitely had to tear his head off.
And that's what I did.
After this fight here with Haugen,
I started to decline.
I still kept winning. But I started to drink, to use drugs.
Cocaine.
And I kept going up.
Still winning fights. But I wasn't preparing myself the same way.
I knew that sooner or later, I would lose.
So, naturally, my private lifeÂ was a disaster.
And my sport life, too.
I ruined it all.
[Grillo] In Mexico, boxing can't offer a way out for everyone.
But for the willing and able,
boxing can offer for a second chance.
[speaking Spanish] Well, I think boxing has helped me a lot personally,
because I am really aggressive. I am bad-tempered. I overreact.
So this is helping me discipline the way I behave.
So they have showed me that throwing punches
isn't only used for aggression,
but as a way to discipline yourself in life,
the right way, as a sport.
Thanks to all this, I've also stopped doing drugs.
[speaking Spanish] These women have benefited a lot
from having the chance to box.
They're girls with very strong characters and are very rash.
However, this has allowed them to moderate their behavior
and that has decreased the violence.
It lets them understand what respect is, what liberty and limits are,
what tolerance is.
These values are necessary for human beings to live in society.
[speaks Spanish]
You're going to be the judge.
- We don't have judges, so you decide. - Okay. Okay. Okay.
- Yes? Sí? - Okay.
Oh, fuck, I'm gonna get killed! [laughs]
When I was a kid, the first movie I ever saw
was The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds.
The very first movie I ever saw.
That's what made me want to be an actor.
No joke. And I remembered they had a football team inside jail,
and that was what it was about. And then I went
and I visited a prison that had a program like that,
and I remember these guys saying, "Without this, we'd be dead."
They're throwing bombs! They're throwing bombs!
Let me tell you something. You know what they don't want to do after that?
They don't want to fight, right? So they leave it in here.
So she wrote what's on that wall right there.
Yeah? Could she tell me what that says?
[girl speaking Spanish] "No one believed in me.Â Nobody knows what I suffered.
I even cried. No one encouraged me.
However, my goals were met and my life changed,
thanks to my passion, boxing."
[Grillo] To get some extra work in, outsiders with the guts for it
are invited into prisons for sparring sessions.
Apparently, it's not that big of a group.
Does being in prison make her nervous?
[speaking Spanish] I am nervous,
but that's normal if you come to a place like this.
But it's very motivating to be here.
[man] I'm nervous, but I feel good.
[Grillo] This is really important for anybody who's incarcerated,
is to have some physical activity.
Whether it's weightlifting or boxing or... You know, for the mind, for the spirit.
The people who are involved in this, in the boxing,
I'm sure it's decreased their level of anxiety inside.
It's given them a sense of community, you know?
Maybe less fear.
Boxing's an amazing thing. It really is.
It transcends sport, 'cause you don't play boxing, you know?
You box.
Even when boxing can't save...
it can heal.
[man speaking Spanish] When I started boxing, I did it for money,
to buy a house for my mother.
Later I became a professional.
I was a National Champion,
number one in the world for three years.
I came back to life.
Every accident I've ever had has almost been fatal.
There were four people
in the car when I hit a truck.
We all had allegedly died.
But I actually survived. I was the only one. Everyone else died.
I had a problem on the street.
I was fighting with a guy and someone else came up from behind and stabbed me.
He punctured my lung.
After that, people said I only had seven, six, five lives left.
That's why they call me El Gato.
Well, most inmates are here for drug addiction, for alcoholism.
However, when they ask us for help, when they want to get better,
not just as boxers, but for themselves as people,
when we start training them, we tell them, "You're going to have to make the effort.
You're going to have to quit drugs, because if not, don't even bother."
On the other hand, I'm very proud
that every boxer I've trained hasn't returned.
Some of them keep fighting, others are working.
That's satisfying for me.
Well, this is because sometimes you don't think things through.
You feel like nothing is going to happen to you.
And unfortunately, I wasn't tied to drugs or anything, but to drinking.
And that's what got me here.
[man speaks Spanish] What crime did you commit?
Homicide.
I've been here for ten years. I don't like to talk about it,
because this situation shames and embarrasses me.
It makes me feel here... inside. Understand?
Well, what I want, what I always ask God for,
is the chance to be the best trainer in my country.
I know NachoÂ Beristáin is there, and to me, he's number one.
[Grillo] We are at Romanza Gym.
This is NachoÂ Beristáin's gym.
This is where some of the greatest champions...
Mexican champions in boxing
have come out of. This is like folklore to me.
The amount of champions that Nacho Beristáin has trained is unrivaled.
Arguably the best trainer in the world.
I'm really...
I'm embarrassed to actually put on boxing gloves when I go up there,
but I'm gonna do it anyway. [laughs]
Tight quarters.
The energy here is thick with fighters.
People travel from all over the world to fight here.
This is a very special place.
It might not look fancy, which I love,
but anybody who's been involved in boxing, who loves boxing,
who wants to box... this is it. This is a Mecca.
[speaking Spanish] Boxing gyms are always like this,
rustic, ugly,
but the best fighters train in them.
When I met Cassius Clay in Houston,
he invited us to a training session. He invited the team.
I was the Olympic team trainer.
He invited us to watch him train
in a place where there were rat holes.
That is the place where the best fighters I've ever met would train.
Just if we can get a look about what's on the walls.
Up here, you can see Chiquita Gonzalez.
That's Chiquita Gonzalez.
[Mauricio Sulaiman] Chiquita Gonzalez came from a different gym.
He was crowned by the Sanchez family
and then lost by knockout to Carbajal.
So he moved with Nacho
and Nacho brought the best ability
that Chiquita could have with boxing skills.
Do you recall when Chiquita Gonzalez beat...
- Carbajal? - Carbajal in the stadium? Were you...?
[speaking Spanish] GonzalezÂ and Carbajal fought inÂ Plaza de Toros, Mexico,
on a stage where there are bullfights.
And it was magnificent. I had the chance to call that fight.
I was ringside.
It was the night of Chiquita Gonzalez's consecration.
- I was very young, almost a child. - Yeah.
[laughing]
So he has not been back to this stadium since his fight.
[speaking Spanish]
Wow!
- Wow! Wow! - Sí. Gracias.Â Sí. [speaks Spanish]
[Grillo] Look at this!
This is something that would never even be allowed,
I think, in most countries, because of the way the stadium is built.
It's amazing. Now, tell me what you're feeling just right now.
- Goosebumps - Goosebumps. Look at his arms.
- [Grillo] It's giving me goosebumps. - Yeah. [speaks Spanish]
[laughs]
Being here, seeing this...
the arena where I fought...
I came out where the bulls come out.
That was the way I came out to fight.
I came out strong like the bulls.
I feel nervous now.
I've got... I have goosebumps! I'm gonna go fight.
I can settle down by moving around, throwing punches.
[Grillo laughing] Still!
Bring Michael Carbajal! Get Michael Carbajal on the phone!
[speaking Spanish] We look good because we're the same age.
[Grillo] Yes!
If I face a young guy, I'll run.
Let me have two shots and I'll face the bull.
[Grillo] Yeah! Hey! Me and him,Â we go fight the bulls! We go fight the bulls.
Throw the bull at me!
[Grillo] Like that.
We're 100 years old.
100 years old.
Yeah. That's it. Yeah. [humming]
[Humberto Gonzalez speaking Spanish] That's it. All of this was magnificent.
- Salud. Yeah. - Salud.
Viva la Mexico!
Oh, that's good.
[Gonzalez speaking Spanish]
[Grillo laughs] Yeah. Like a rock!
[speaking Spanish] Tell him that here, the jab is thrown like this.
Juan Manuel Marquez threw it like this.
So don't... No?
Here, we do it like this.
That hand, Frank, here.
- Here. - Not so...
- [speaks Spanish] Hey, hey. Hey. - [Grillo] So...
This is very intimidating.
So, for many people,
Nacho is the greatest trainer alive.
His fighters are some of the best fighters that have ever been in a boxing ring.
How many world champions has he trained?
[Nacho Beristáin speaks Spanish] 27.
[Grillo] 27 world champions.
How important does Nacho feel that boxing is to Mexico
as far as keeping kids away from a bad life?
That news clip over there,
we don't take it down.
It's a group of kids that I trained a long time ago.
They did that story
and most of them are dead.
And if they're not, they're in jail. Most of them.
Only one of them made it out to become Youth Featherweight World Champion.
But most of them are dead or in jail.
That one. That's the only one alive.
And he's at the Maria Islands.
This one. All the rest...
We keep it here as an example
so that they know boxing requires commitment and love.
If you love it, boxing will likely treat you well.
But if you don't commit,
you're going to end up just like them.
[Alvan Jandete Alvarado speaking Spanish] I have a lot of friends
that got involved in drugs.
And the truth is many of them haven't gotten out.
In fact, there are many that didn't make it out alive.
[speaking Spanish] Boxing is a really beautiful thing.
Many fall into drugs.
We had some teammates that were drug addicts.
And thanks to Jorge Vera, they got out of it.
[speaking Spanish] My dad and me, wow!
My dad for me is the best thing in the world,
because he didn't become famous
by doing what happens in the neighborhood,
by stealing and stuff.
He became famous
for the punches, for the sport he likes.
And I'm proud, truly I'm proud.
Jorge has saved many kids.
And this is something that's obviously very sensitive
and tragic,
but unfortunately your brother and Jorge's son
was killed, was murdered in Tepito.
It was a very hard blow for all of us, especially my dad.
He was very depressed.
He tried to cheer us up,
and what he did was go to the gym. There, he would get rid of the stress.
That is how he managed his stress, through the sport.
[speaking Spanish] My son Jorge was killed in one of the streets in Tepito
when they tried to carjack him.
He refused, so they shot him.
Here in Tepito.
He was young.
[Rodolfo Vargas speaking Spanish] For Mexicans, boxing is the sport
where we know we're number one.
We're the best. We're champions of the world.
Having a Mexican world champion boxer
is our reputation on this planet
and the inspiration needed to know you can face every adversity.
[Carlos Zarate speaking Spanish] I love boxing because it has taught me.
I am no longer a champion of boxing,
but I am a champion of life.
[Sulaiman] Every day, we go and we fight.
Whatever you do.
In a business, in a court of law,
in a hospital.
You are fighting. You are going through challenges.
Boxing may seem to be a brutal sport
or a savage sport.
It is not. It is honorable.
And when that fight is over,
they embrace and they hug each other
and then move on with respect to the other.
When that bell rings, it brings the absolute greatness of the human being.
[Rodolfo Gonzalez speaking Spanish] This strength I feel, I never forget it,
because this is a gift that was given to me by God.
Because...
I wanted to be a lot of things, but I became a boxer.
And thanks to boxing, I managed to get my family ahead.
I bought my mother a house and bought nice things.
I helped a lot of people, and this always made me feel good.
And it still does.
I'm always going to be that boxer, that trainer,
that person in boxing,
because it's a blessing.
[Jorge Vera speaking Spanish] I'll repeat it. Boxing is something really beautiful.
If you like it and you do it from the heart,
you will manage to be somebody.
But the other things have already passed, and life goes on.
Your joys and your sadness you have inside of you.
You have to have them always.
There are good things, good moments in your life.
There will be sad moments. There are disappointments. There is everything.
But they must continue living, because that is life.
And you have to keep moving forward.
[Grillo] The Mexican style, with its origins humble,
its heart courageous,
and only one simple rule...
Keep moving forward.
[laughing]
[laughs] He still punches hard!
Wow.
[music playing over dialogue]