James Marshall (Twin Peaks) stars as Tommy Riley, a talented young boxer from Chicago's suburbs who is forced to move with his father (John Heard) to a rough South Side neighborhood where toughs are always showing up trying to collect on his father's gambling debts. To win money to bail his dad out of jail, Tommy is convinced to compete in illegal prizefights staged by sleazy promoter Jimmy Horn (Brian Dennehy), who exploits racial tension to fan the flames of aggression in his fights. When Tommy befriends Horn's top black fighter, Lincoln (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a young husband and father who sees his fists as his ticket out of the ghetto, it's only a matter of time before the two friends are set against each other and their bond is tested in the ring.