Tough Guys

Tough Guys (2017)

10 years before the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In 1979, Bill Viola and Frank Caliguri dreamed up a contest pitting barroom bigmouths against wrestlers, martial artists, boxers, bouncers and brawlers, billed as no-holds-barred new type of competitive fighting. When the fights succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, they were swept up in a chain of events that ended in the first mixed-martial arts ban in the nation. “Tough Guys” chronicles the inception of Caliguri and Viola’s first bouts and the colorful, crazy cast of fighters who made them a hit as well as the politicians who brought it all crashing down. The film brings to life a moment when the national martial arts craze was building to a crescendo as the economies of Pennsylvania steel towns were plummeting to levels of unemployment never seen, breeding desperate men looking for a chance to prove their worth and make some money in the ring.

Date of release
2017-09-15
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 16m
Genres
Documentary
Director
W.B. Zullo, Henry Roosevelt

Casting

Interesting facts

Tough Guys is a 2017 documentary film that explores the development of mixed martial arts as a mainstream sporting event in the United States from 1979-1983. The principal characters are Bill Viola and Frank Caliguri, who founded CV Productions together. The film made its debut at the AFI Film Festival of 2017. Its first network television showing premiered on Showtime, September 15, 2017. Filming took place at 18 locations throughout Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida including Allegheny Shotokan Karate and Denny's restaurant.

Background

Tough Guys was inspired by the book Godfathers of MMA published by Kumite Classic Entertainment and written by Bill Viola Jr and Dr. Fred Adams. The book was featured in The Tough Guys exhibit at the Heinz History Center, which recognized Viola and Califuri as the co-creators of MMA, and caught the attention of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Robert Zullo.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended