Southpaw Page #10

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of his hunger to fight.

Come on, Billy!

Round two begins, and it's Hope

who's the aggressor at the beginning.

Now Escobar counters back.

- Your defense! Come on!

- And Billy's doing

just the opposite of what

a boxer is supposed to do.

You're supposed to hit and not get hit.

Billy is not hitting, and getting

the hell knocked out of him.

Come on, Billy, move

your head, move your head!

Early on, it looks like Escobar's jab

is too quick for Billy Hope.

Escobar working downstairs and up,

following the body shots

with hard punches upstairs.

Good exchange right there

before Tony separated them.

Come on, baby, you got this.

Watch that right. Just keep the pace.

Use your speed. Work your way inside.

Let's go, Billy! Don't give up, boy!

First couple rounds seem

to have gone Escobar's way.

Let's see if Hope can raise his

energy level and make it more of a fight.

Move your head! Move your head!

Keep, keep him up!

High time for Hope

to begin working to the body

and try to turn things around.

Three left hooks to the ribcage.

Escobar catches him with a right.

Down goes Hope.

First knockdown of the fight.

...three, four,

- Get up, baby!

- five... six...

Get up! Get up!

That left eye is bleeding freely.

You all right? You okay?

All right, sit down.

No, no, no. His eye.

He's hurt!

And it looks already as though

things may be slipping away

from Billy Hope.

You got to keep the pressure on, baby.

Don't worry about the eye,

I got the eye.

That's a gruesome-looking left eye...

If there was a problem,

they would stop the fight.

There's not a problem, okay?

- How's it look, Doc?

- I can see.

He's all right. He's all right.

Yeah, he's good to go. Good to go.

Well, Hope's fans would say

it wouldn't be Billy

if he weren't bleeding.

Show him. It's time to show him, baby.

Time to show him this time.

Back in the center of the ring.

Hope unloading right-hand leads.

- Come on, Billy, show up!

- Hope trying to tuck

that injured left eye

behind his front shoulder.

And Tick must be like

his Freddie Roach to Miguel Cotto,

because Tick has done

a great job with his defense.

Almost as though, Roy,

Billy Hope didn't show up again

till the blood started to flow

from that left eye.

Now Billy's showing up, Jim.

I have never seen Billy Hope

block a punch.

This is unbelievable. Look at him.

Nice!

What a good three-punch combination

out of the shoulder roll right there,

from Billy Hope.

Come on, Billy!

This is Hope's best round so far.

That's it! That's it!

And they're talking to each other

in the center of the ring.

Good. Stay in the shell.

Protect yourself.

He's switching his style up on us.

- He's rolling his shoulder.

- I can't hit that motherf***er, bro.

How's it looking, Doc?

- We got it, we got this.

- I'm good, Doc.

Okay, yeah, you're good to go.

Get the f***...

You know who you are? You're a champion.

You can do it! This is yours, all right?

- Okay? You're a champion.

- Let's go!

Halfway through

the 12-round fight in Las Vegas,

now they're even, Hope bleeding

from above the left eye.

Escobar bleeding from above the right.

Hope mounting more and more offense now.

And now he fires back

with a big right hand.

- We got this. We got this.

- And they're working hard

to keep that right eye together

for Escobar, in his corner.

They're working just as hard

to keep Billy Hope's

left eye in the fight.

Hard right hand!

Get off the rope! Get off the rope!

Hope trapped in the corner.

Some of those shots were blocked,

but it was another big rally

for Miguel Escobar.

Both men have been hurt in this round.

Early rounds seemed to belong

to Miguel Escobar.

Middle rounds definitely

belonged to Billy Hope.

And now, as we come

to the 11th and 12th,

it's a close fight on the table

for whichever fighter wants it most.

- Shake it off, Billy!

- I'm f***in' tired, man.

He's more tired than you are.

Two more, Billy... you just keep

doing what you're doing.

That f***er hits hard as a motherf***er.

I need you to counter,

I need you to pivot.

I need you to stay in

the shell, you hear me?

You got to stay focused,

stay in this fight.

- Punch and move.

- You were his f***in' trainer!

Why don't you tell me how to

f***in' beat the guy, man?

You're ready for this. You ain't tired.

You strong, you strong.

This is your time.

This is your moment. You hear me?

Billy Hope! Billy Hope!

Now with two rounds to go,

let's see which man can impose his will

in the championship rounds.

Come on, move, go!

Both men bleeding badly from one eye.

Don't stay still! Let's go!

It has elevated to a state of war.

That's right, Jim.

There are cuts everywhere,

there's blood everywhere.

Nothing to hold back now.

Underneath it all, a subtext of hatred,

anger, revenge...

which may or may not be relieved

by the violent combat

in which they now immerse themselves.

That's it! That's what

I'm talking about! That's it!

At this point,

it's a war of attrition...

a fight to the finish.

Listen, now, your wife

can't save you now, b*tch!

Yeah, she can't save you now.

What you doing? Stick to the plan!

Billy, what are you trying to do?

Stick to the plan!

is caught between two monsters,

- as they fire away...

- What is he doing?

- What's going on?

- What is he doing?

What did he do to my dad?

- What happened to him?

- It's okay, sweetie.

What's wrong with him?

Keep throwing them bars.

Just keep throwing them bars.

Come on, keep it playing with his head.

Keep it playing... come on, Coach.

All right, you're about to blow this.

You got to be calm, you got to be calm.

Everybody else is walking slow.

This world is yours,

this world is yours.

Your soul is here... give me a towel.

God is watching you.

Your wife is watching you.

I'm watching you.

Your daughter's watching you.

Don't let this man control you.

Don't let him control you.

This is exceptional to me.

And part of a resurgent career,

as Hope is trying to come back

from life-damaging circumstances,

including, of course,

the unexpected death

of his wife Maureen.

Don't let him get into your head.

Don't let him take this from you.

You got one shot. Go southpaw.

Go southpaw on his ass.

You go in there and you kick his ass!

You hear me? You show up,

you show him...

I want to see Billy the Great!

You hear me?

I want to see Billy the Great!

Now you go out there

and you... beat his ass!

Clap now.

Already tonight,

a lot of expectations have been upended

by the style of the fight,

by the competitiveness

of the fight, and now

by the unexpected circumstance

of us entering the 12th round of a fight

that no ringside expert ever dreamed

could possibly go the distance.

- Come on, Billy!

- I'm not sure who's

- winning this fight right now.

- Escobar tasted both

of those big punches,

and now he's not throwing,

as Hope lines him up

and tries to tee off.

Escobar is in trouble,

he's in bad trouble.

Now Escobar comes back

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