Then, after 12 weeks' of hammering and chiselling, Kayes will witness Hatton contest the fight of his life before watching him slip into the layabout routine which has become his custom.
Yvonne, who is pregnant and dreams of a better life for her child, drains away the hours watching B-Westerns in an all-night grind house while her layabout boyfriend, Homer, goes out to drink and gamble.
In particular, at the crucial flashback when Willy's teenage son Biff (Andrew Garfield) discovers his father's marital infidelity, the shock and disillusionment are supposed to explain the long-held mystery of why he turned from a star athlete into an aimless layabout.