Requiem for a Heavyweight is a 1962 American film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Julie Harris. Quinn portrays Mountain Rivera, an aging professional boxer who was once ranked number seven in the world. Gleason is his manager, Maish.
At the beginning of the film, Rivera is knocked out by the real Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali. As a result, Rivera is medically determined to be unfit for more boxing matches.
He then goes to a governmental employment agency looking for work. I would have thought Rivera would pursue a young fighter he could coach.
At the agency, Rivera meets Grace (Harris), who is assigned his case. She takes a interest in him. Later, Grace tracks him to a bar where Rivera likes to hang out. She tells him she arranged for him to have an interview with a children's camp for a counseling job. They also talk about personal subjects.
Such a job runs counter to what plans Maish has for Rivera. Maish is heavily indebted to a bookie and wants to extricate himself by signing up Rivera to be a professional wrestler. This is not unprecedented. The great Joe Louis wrestled after his retirement from boxing.
Maish sabotages the job interview by taking Rivera to a bar and getting him drunk.
Rivera resists transitioning to wrestling as a humiliation. However, the bookie threatens Maish...so Rivera relents. Maish also reveals that he had bet against Rivera, but that Rivera owes him...for whatever.
In 1976, there was another movie about a heavyweight boxer, Rocky. Rocky's opponent, Apollo Creed, is an act-alike of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali. Both Rivera and Rocky lost their fights. Rocky's love life was a success; Rivera's was a failure. Both of their apartments were non-descript.
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