Requiem for a Heavyweight

Theater Schmeater exposes the human face behind the fists in Rod Serling’s groundbreaking boxing drama Requiem for a Heavyweight. Tim Hyland directs.

What do you do when your fighting days are over? Once a contender for World Heavyweight Champion, now Mountain McClintock’s been knocked down one too many times. After his last bout, the doc told him his fighting days are over, but this country boy from Tennessee doesn’t know how to do anything except fight – and after 14 years of taking punches, he sure doesn’t look like your average job applicant. Mountain’s manager has some problems of his own; he staked everything he had on Mountain’s last fight, but he bet on the wrong man ­– Mountain¹s opponent. Now he’s caught in a desperate spiral trapped by a young new prospect he can’t afford, a debt he can’t pay (and the collectors are getting restless), a threat to pull his license for gambling . . . and nothing left to peddle except Mountain. All Mountain McClintock has left right now is his pride ­– and in this business, that ain’t worth a damn thing.