The two travel Europe as she continues to win Maggie eventually saves up enough of her winnings to buy her mother a house, but she berates Maggie for endangering her government aid, claiming that everyone back home is laughing at her.įrankie is finally willing to arrange a title fight. Frankie begrudgingly accepts a fight for her against a top-ranked opponent in the UK, where he bestows a Gaelic nickname on her. Scrap, concerned when Frankie rejects several offers for big fights, arranges a meeting for her with Mickey Mack at a diner on her 33rd birthday. Frankie comes to establish a paternal bond with Maggie, who substitutes for his estranged daughter. Earning a reputation for her KOs, Frankie must resort to bribery to get other managers to put their trainee fighters up against her.Įventually, Frankie risks putting her in the junior welterweight class, where her nose is broken in her first match.
A natural, she fights her way up in the women's amateur boxing division with Frankie's coaching, winning many of her lightweight bouts with first-round knockouts. Other than Maggie and his employees, the only person Frankie has contact with is a local priest, with whom he spars verbally at daily Mass.īefore her first fight, Frankie leaves Maggie with a random manager in his gym, much to her dismay upon being told by Scrap that said manager deliberately put her up against his best girl (coaching the novice to lose) to give her an easy win, Frankie rejoins Maggie in the middle of the bout and coaches her instead to an unforeseen victory. He warns her that he will teach her only the basics and then find her a manager. With prodding from Scrap and impressed with her persistence, Frankie reluctantly agrees to train Maggie. Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, Frankie's friend and employee-and the film's narrator-encourages and helps her.įrankie's prize prospect, "Big" Willie Little, signs with successful manager Mickey Mack after becoming impatient with Dunn's rejecting offers for a championship bout. Maggie works out tirelessly each day in his gym, even after Frankie tells her she's "too old" to begin a boxing career at her age. Maggie asks Frankie to train her, but he initially refuses. Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald, a waitress from a Missouri town in the Ozarks, shows up in the Hit Pit, a run-down Los Angeles gym owned and operated by Frankie Dunn, an old, cantankerous boxing trainer.