History of Boxing in Film: “Snatch.”

Those of you that have seen the film know that Snatch’s incorporation of boxing is that of the unlicensed variety, not what we deal with on this site, but it is such an outstanding film that I feel compelled to include it in this project. The film really gets going in Antwerp where a diamond heist is committed for a precious eighty-four karat stone that

is responsible for much of the film’s plot. Frankie “Four Fingers,” played by Benicio Del Toro makes his way to London with the stone, only to be double-crossed by his partners in crime who enlist Boris “the Blade” Yurinov to relieve Frankie of the diamond. The rest of the film’s story centers in the seedy and dangerous setting of London’s unlicensed boxing world. Turkish, played by Jason Statham, is an unlicensed boxing promoter handling the career of one “Gorgeous George.” We join Turkish as he is negotiating the unenviable task of dealing with the Don of the unlicensed boxing business: “Bricktop” Polford. Brought to life in memorable fashion by British actor Alan Ford, Bricktop, whose menacing demeanor increases with his age, represented the last chapter in the life of many an unfortunate soul, and he means to be so for anyone who crosses him in the future.

Observing his latest boxing acquisition in sparring, Bricktop soon becomes impatient with a disloyal associate and orders his henchmen to dispose of the man after a swift jolt with a stun gun. Unfortunately for onlooker little Liam, Bricktop has even less time for “grasses” and once again, henchmen John and Herol are drafted in, except this time, they demonstrate exactly why our mothers told us not to mess with plastic bags when we were kids. Playing Liam before his premature death is former British light flyweight champion Mickey Cantwell. While a winner in only fourteen fights, and a loser in seven, Cantwell challenged for world titles on three occasions during his career, losing to Zolani Pethelo for the IBF minimumweight title and twice to “Baby” Jake Matlala for the WBO and WBU titles respectively. While unlucky in those championship fights, Cantwell earned the affections of the British public, and he certainly made out better than poor Liam.

Meanwhile, seeking a proper office to run his boxing business out of, Turkish sends his hapless partner Tommy, along with the sizeable George, out to a “Pikey” campsite to purchase an office in the form of a caravan. It is there that we encounter Mickey O’Neil, played by Brad Pitt, and his indecipherable dialect, neither Irish Gypsy nor English, just….Pikey. Tommy thinks he has a good deal until the wheels come off the caravan and Mickey and company are no longer very cooperative. The solution: Mickey O’Neil vs. Gorgeous George for all the marbles. What Tommy does not know is that Mickey is a Gypsy bare-knuckle boxing champion, a fact George soon finds out to his extreme displeasure after Mickey knocks him senseless with one right hand counter.

With no caravan and worse still, no George to offer Bricktop for the main event of his latest illegal boxing soiree, Turkish elects to try to convince Mickey to fight instead. Mickey’s fee: a caravan for his dear old ma. However, while Mickey decides to go ahead with the fight, he decides against complying with Bricktop’s demand that he should “go down in the fourth,” concluding matters against “Bomber” Harris with another stunning, one-punch knockout.

By this time, the diamond is in a briefcase, attached to the arm of Frankie, whose bad day has seen him rendered unconscious in his van, hit by a car containing pawnshop proprietors Vinnie and Sol as well as accident-prone driver Tyrone, all recruited by Boris to hold up the bookies in which Frankie is set to place a bet. The day soon gets worse forFrankie as the trio, unable to grab any money from the bookies or remove the case from Frankie’s arm, kidnap him and take him to their shop, where Russian hard-case Boris “the Blade” has no such problems. After shooting Frankie in the head, Boris uses a machete to deprive Frankie of the case, and his forearm for good measure.

Bricktop thwarts Turkish’s attempts to leave the country by stealing all of his savings as compensation for Mickey’s disobedience, and Turkish finds himself left with the job of having to ask Mickey once again to compete in a bare-knuckle fight that he definitely must throw in the fourth, or risk ending up as pig food. After losing a bet to Mickey with the fight, and their lives on the line, Turkish and Tommy have no money to buy the caravan that would persuade Mickey to fight for Bricktop. Thus, Bricktop decides to employ some persuasive tactics of his own by smashing up Turkish and Tommy’s slot-machine business and worst of all, setting fire to Mickey’s Mother’s caravan…..while she is fast asleep in it.

The diamond, having been the source of all-out carnage carried out on the streets of London between Boris, Vinnie, Sol, Tyrone, diamond merchants Doug and Avi Denovitz along with their nutcase urban hunter Bullet-tooth Tony, soon finds its way into the stomach of Vinnie’s “Pikey mutt.” The dog, unappreciative of Tony’s attempts to carve him up in order to retrieve the stone, bolts out of Vinnie and Sol’s pawnshop window, at which Avi relieves his handgun of several bullets, and Tony of his existence.

Meanwhile, with death threats hanging over his entire campsite, Mickey arrives drunk out of his mind to fight Horace “Goodnight” Anderson in the film’s final battle. The hulking Anderson is portrayed by none other than former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion, Scott “the Brighton Rock” Welch. Before retiring from boxing in 1999, Welch tallied twenty-two wins against four losses, stopping Joe Bugner in a fight in Germany and unsuccessfully challenging Henry Akinwande for the WBO world heavyweight title. Mickey almost finishes the fight with another devastating blow in the opening seconds, but Anderson gets up, and Mickey toys with him, increasing the tension in the hostile crowd by making it look as if the fight is fixed.

A bloody battle commences between the two as they tear away at one another. Turkish reminds Mickey to make it look like a fight, but to not, on any account, knock Anderson out. Mickey finally seems to get the picture as a huge right uppercut puts him down, but it is not to be as that famous right hand of his erupts on Anderson’s face, sending the big man down and the wild crowd of betting observers into an absolute frenzy. Turkish, Tommy and Mickey make a run for it, but they have no reason to fear. During the fight, Mickey’s family and friends have positioned themselves at the campsite to give the van full of Bricktop’s henchman a hot reception. Completely incensed at this point, Bricktop spots the fleeing trio and reaches for a gun to put an end to them for good. The only problem is that Mickey’s friends have also taken over Bricktop’s car and let him know about it with a few shotgun rounds in the face.

The next day, Turkish and Tommy arrive at the campsite only to find that Mickey and company have disappeared, leaving the two promoters dumbfounded, Vinnie and Sol to take the rap for two dead bodies found in their car, and the police asking an awful lot of questions. Suddenly, Turkish spots Vinnie’s dog running wild around the deserted camp area, a place it always knows its way back to. The dog provides a handy decoy for why Turkish and Tommy were there in the first place and even more than that, a few days later. They take the dog to the vets, where a stomach examination yields one whole squeaky toy ball and one brand-spanking new eighty-four karat diamond; worth a lot to two unlicensed boxing promoters who don’t know much about diamonds, except that they come from Antwerp, don’t they?

Stay tuned for more in the “Boxing History in Film” project only at SaddoBoxing.com

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk