Look, I wouldn't call myself a spiritual guy. There wasn't much in my life that made me believe in a higher power. It doesn't mean I don't think anything is sacred though. One of the few religious experiences I had in my life was boxing. Nevermind the obvious self-destructive nature of the sport, it really takes somebody special to become the best at trading punches and hurting one another. The documentary CHAMPS examines the lives of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins, three of the most notorious boxing champions of the modern era and outlines what makes them the best of the best, how they worked their way to championship status. It is a grinding and heartbreaking documentary that outlines what it takes to become the American Dream.
CHAMPS is a short documentary that outlines the career of three professional boxing champions, so it goes over a lot of material in very little time. It first draws a parallel between all three men : they're all products of poverty and contemporary racial segregation. They all thew up in the ghetto. The first twenty or so minutes of CHAMPS was probably the most moving part as the champions explain what their condition meant to them. Bernard Hopkins' segment was the most heartbreaking to me, as he explains how his mother had to serve her family the same canned food every day and how she tried to change the flavor to trick her kids it was something else. If this isn't what growing up poor is all about, I don't know what is.
The point CHAMPS is making though, is that boxing is a way for disenfranchised young men to transcend their social situation and live the American Dream. That implies a lot of career footage, which if you've seen most of it like me, won't conceal many surprises. I have seen most of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins' careers unfold before my eyes. Once again, the most interesting parts were about Hopkins, who rededicated himself to boxing while in prison. He's the only one of the three champions who didn't go broke and I believe the strong relationship he fosters to his past is key to his healthy financial situation. Bernard Hopkins never lost sight of what it was to be broke and hopeless.
The Ageless (and very much self-made) Wonder Bernard Hopkins.
CHAMPS is a short documentary, barely 90 minutes long. It is oddly too long for what it has to say, though and runs out of fuel about 75 minutes or so. There is a long, abstract montage of the three champions' careers at the end that is very light on content. It's not uncommon to have montages like this at the end of documentaries, but they're not that freakin' long. CHAMPS spent 75 minutes explaining what boxing meant to Tyson, Holyfield and Hopkins, going over it all again like in an Academic essay felt like an attempt to pad the length of the movie and meet some sort of contractual agreement. I thought it was bizarre and stuck out like a hairy mole at the end of the movie. I wouldn't have been a worse documentary if it had been 80 minutes.
It's a misconception that boxing has democratized over the last two decades. Of course, white people have invaded gyms like zombies and all sign up their kids hoping to turn them into Floyd Mayweather, but they are still worlds away from understanding what it is. There's a world between lacing up the gloves and climbing on the ring to spar. There's also another world between sparring with a partner under supervision and fighting a stranger in front of a bloodthirsty crowd. There's a whole level of animal fear you need to learn to channel. Boxing champions are still a different breed. They have resisted the passage of time and will always resist it because they faced and conquered a truth we can barely understand and CHAMPS ultimately succeeds at showing that.