Richard Conte does a fine job playing a young Mexican prizefighter in the early years of the last century. It's a trade he took to in an effort to raise money for the cause of overthrowing Porfirio Diaz.
I have to confess I was a bit shocked learning that this film comes from a Jack London novel based on a real character, at least according to the narration. Fine writer that he was London had some truly racist views on Asians. Apparently that did not hold true for Hispanics.
The plot has Conte falling under the influence of revolutionary Lee J. Cobb after his village is destroyed in a barbaric act perpetrated by one of Diaz's generals Rodolfo Hoyos. Conte flees to El Paso and hooks up with the exiled supporters of Francisco Madero.
Where in order first to just have three hots and a cot he takes up prizefighting and gets quite a local reputation as an up and coming club fighter. Let's say Conte out of necessity finds a way to combine his newly acquired pugilistic skills with his revolutionary politics. His fight scene at the climax of The Fighter is one of the most brutal ever filmed.
London liked telling tales of the brutal realistic underbelly of society and in The Fighter he also mixes his politics in with his skill as a writer. This is a really good adaption of one of his stories. Fans of London, Conte, and Lee J. Cobb will like it and others will become fans.