Dan McGuinn (Gene Hackman), of Irish heritage, is a boxer like his sons and dad and lives in New York City. Ray (Jeff Fahey) and Eddie (Craig Sheffer), his boys, used to live together and have their sights set on the Olympics, among other things. Ray, the older boy, moves out and then wants to advance as far as he possibly can in the middleweight category. He is already a champion of the Golden Gloves. He agrees to have his dad’s rival manage him so he can have better chances. This creates conflict between Ray and Dan. Dan also is a police officer.