Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is a NYC street hawker. Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) leads a team of hustlers and tries to run him off. Shawn is able to fight them off. They meet up again and Harvey offers him an underground fight. Martinez (Luis Guzmán) is another promoter. Zulay Velez is the single mom waitress love interest. Evan Hailey is a rival fighter who was on the same college wrestling team coached by Shawn's father.

This has a feel of something more interesting than a B-movie. Terrence Howard does that to his films. He makes it better than it should be. This is most notable for an early starting role for Tatum. He has solidified this character type with a chip on his shoulder. The fight scenes tries to be indie gritty. Other than that, this movie doesn't stand out.

Channing Tatum is a street hustler with a line of counterfeit goods who gets hooked up in Terrence Howard's world of underground fight clubs and scams. Whenever Tatum thinks he's found something good on his own, whether it's a new hustle or Zulay Henao, in walks Howard, already with a connection to what's going on.

By about the third time it happened, it dawned on me that this was some Big Con game, with Howard moving his players around to push Tatum in a particular place and time for some sort of end game. Unfortunately, as the movie goes on, Tatum's character becomes more and more sullen, stupid ad more easily manipulated, while Howard just seems blanker and blanker. With characters like that, I couldn't work up any interest in their plans or fates. Luis Guzmán, as usual, makes a greater impression than he has any call to. I know he looks like a thug, but he needs someone to write a good role for him.

This thrilling movie deals with a tight-lipped hunk who is introduced to the world of underground street fierce brawling by a seasoned scam artist, who becomes his manager . In New York City, a young counterfeiter named Shawn McArthur (Channing Tatum) tries to come up with a way to get enough money to live . The desperate young knocks several robbers when they attempt to rob him some goods. After that he comes into contact with street-fight promoter , a hustler named Harvey (Terrence Howard). Shawn teams up with the organizer of no-holds-barred bare-knuckle fights that secretly entertain the wealthy across the streets and slums of N.Y.C. and links Shawn up with Martinez (Luis Guzman). Shawn is soon fighting various contenders -ranging from a Harlem bouncing to an Oriental fighter - earning money to help keep his new sweetheart (Zulay Enao) who comes to love him . Shawn decides that he has something worth brawling for and sets everything on the line to vanquish . Although Shawn only wants to bash opponents long enough to gain enough money to assist his girlfriend, he is reluctant to let tricks in combats on the fighting circuit .Every knock-out brings him closer to the existence he's always wished , but also carries him in a deadly cobweb he can't getaway.

The picture contains drama ,thrills , and lots of violent brawls plenty of punch , kicks, and knockouts. Acceptable performance from Channing Tatum as impulsive young becoming a professional street-fighter and battling a variety of contenders , plus Zulay Enao gives a surprisingly good acting as his gorgeous love interest and special mention to Terrence Howard as the sharpster who arranges his bare-knuckled bouts . The picture belongs to sub-genre about street combats as ¨Lionheart¨ with Jean Claude Van Damme and whose maxim representation turns out to be the classic ¨Hard times¨ by Walter Hill with Charles Bronson and James Coburn . It's a colorful but violent entertainment that results to be the second film of his director Dito Montiel. His first movie was the dramatic ¨Guide to recognizing the saints ¨and in preparation ¨The son of no one¨ also with Channing Tatum and Al Pacino . Rating : passable , only for those who like films in which fist-play are staged ad nauseam .