In November 1988, Vinny Pazienza boxes
Roger Mayweather for the WBC World Light Welterweight Title. He arrives late to the weigh-in, having spent hours riding a stationary bicycle in order to make the weight limit. Vinny's final weight is 140 pounds even, which qualifies him for the fight. Instead of sleeping, the cocky Vinny spends all night at the casino. The following day, he loses to Mayweather. At one point during the fight, Vinny is hit after the bell. His manager,
Lou Duva, causes a scene by going after Mayweather and gets punched for his trouble. At the post-match press conference, Duva admits that he feels Vinny isn't serious about the championship and should consider retiring from boxing. This angers Vinny's father and coach, Angelo, and he confronts Duva. In the ensuing argument, Vinny announces that he wants another fight and fires Duva. He replaced his father as coach with
Kevin Rooney; Angelo grudgingly agrees to become his manager instead. Angelo receives confirmation that Vinny has been granted a new title fight against
Gilbert Dele. Kevin objects at first, but still believes that Vinny can win the fight. Vinny wins the bout via
technical knockout, which makes him the WBA World Light Middleweight champion. Some days later, Angelo tells Vinny that he must defend his title against Panamanian boxer
Roberto Durán. Vinny is pleased and drives with his friend Jimmy to get some coffee. On the way, they are hit head-on by an oncoming car. Jimmy sustains minor injuries, but Vinny suffers a critical neck injury. As he regains consciousness in the hospital, the doctor informs him that he might never walk again and will certainly never fight again. He offers to better Vinny's chances of walking by performing a spinal fusion. While this would guarantee that he can walk again, it would limit movement in his neck and leave him medically unfit to box. Against his doctor's recommendation, Vinny opts to be fitted with a
Halo, a medical device consisting of a circular metal brace screwed into his skull in four spots and propped up with four metal rods. This would allow him to regain movement in his neck, which could allow him to box again. Despite Vinny's optimism, Rooney is skeptical and refuses to train him any further. Disobeying his doctors' advice, Vinny begins to work out in his basement. He tells Kevin, who finally agrees to help after realizing how much boxing means to Vinny. Angelo eventually catches them, and kicks Kevin out of the house. Six months after the accident, Vinny is ready to have the halo removed. He chooses to endure the pain of having the screws removed without taking any sedatives. In his comeback match, it is confirmed that Vinny will once again fight Durán. The fight is held in Las Vegas, in 1990. In the first six rounds, Vinny struggles to match the more fit and better conditioned Durán. Suddenly inspired by his own tenacity, Vinny lands a good punch late in the fight. Vinny eventually wins, via 12-round majority decision (, , ). In the final scene, Vinny is interviewed by a journalist. She asks him about the biggest lie he was ever told as a boxer. Vinny pauses, then says the biggest lie is, "It's not that simple". ==Cast==