被老闆下了最後通牒、又遭到迫遷通知,傑森既迷惘又找不到希望。即使生活不如意,他仍然偷偷關注著拳擊賽事。因緣際會下,傑森認識了拳擊手教練杜恩,毅然決然辭去黑手的工作,開始嚴格的訓練。隨著他屢戰屢勝的佳績所贏得的獎金,漸漸改善了他與母親貧困的生活,而他的勵志故事也被拍攝成電視節目「挑戰者」。Bronx native Jaden Miller, 24, could've had a better life, but fighting within a prestigious school cost his scholarship and an expulsion. Now a high school dropout working from job to job, evicted with nowhere to call home, he decides to train as a boxer under discredited trainer Duane Taylor. The local PBS station picks up on the story and wants to document Jaden's progress as he becomes slated to take on the champion, James Burchard, an undefeated boxer of less-than-appealing character. Jaden's mom, Jada (ailing from a heart condition), sees no good in this, as it was fighting that so far ruined his life, but Duane sees within Jaden an it factor that could make him great.