The boxing drama They Fight, out July 17 on Hulu, packs a punch, inspired by the true story of the late Walter Manigan, who touched many lives in Washington, D.C., as a youth boxing coach after serving time in prison. 

Manigan saw himself not only as a boxing coach but also a life coach, helping his pupils stay out of trouble. 

In the film, André Holland stars as Manigan, putting kids through boot camp—like having them do weight-lifting with actual bricks—and dishing out real talk, telling the kids that boxing “gave me my purpose back.”

Director Sheldon Candis and his team visited boxing gyms in the D.C. area like Upton and NoXcuse to make sure the actors depicted the sport realistically. But the movie is also inspired by two men that Manigan coached, Ragahleak Bartee, 24, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, and Quincey Williams, 22, a professional boxer. In the film, they are youngsters prepping for a junior national boxing tournament in West Virginia. 

The two men shared what they learned from boxing with the real Walter Manigan.

More than a boxing gym

Manigan had a rough upbringing, the son of two drug addicts who was raised by his grandmother, according to a 2016 Washington Post profile. He had been a boxing coach at HeadBangers gym before serving two years in prison for distributing cocaine.

When he got out, he couldn’t face his old students. “My pride wouldn’t let me go back because I knew I let those kids down,” he told the Post. In 2012, he started over at Ferebee-Hope Recreation Center in D.C., teaming up with existing coaches to start a boxing program called Lyfe Style. 

Ragahleak Bartee, whom Manigan nicknamed “Peanut,” started going to Lyfe Style to get away from fights and shootings in his neighborhood, per They Fight, a 2018 FOX Nation documentarythat inspired the 2026 movie by the same name.

Manigan told the Washington Post, “It ain’t all about boxing. I want to raise them from boys to men.” 

Bartee tells TIME he succeeded. “Coach Walt was like a superhero,” he says. “He taught me about fatherhood. He was basically a second dad to me.” Bartee adds Manigan made everyone feel welcome. You “didn’t have to be the best boxer” to make the team, and Manigan “always made sure that the kid wasn’t left out.” 

Williams said he used to cry a lot when he first started boxing—and losing—in matches with other pupils. But he stopped when Walt reassured him, “you’re going to have good days, and you’re going to have bad days.” He says the program taught him a kind of discipline he still follows while training for fights today.

Manigan and the coaches provided boxing gear, meals, haircuts, and travel to tournaments for his Lyfe Style boxing team members, raising the money by selling water bottles on the street, setting up a GoFundMe site, and even paying out of pocket. 

“If I do anything to mess up, I kill their dreams. That keeps me on a straight path,” he told the Post.

Life lessons from boxing

Unfortunately, Manigan had to stop coaching when he relapsed and became addicted to opioids. The stress of searching for funding for his boxing team also took a toll. Bartee and Williams never got to have a heart-to-heart with him about his struggle with addiction, and Manigan died in 2022 at the age of 55.

But the 2026 movie They Fight has a happy ending, culminating in Quincey winning a boxing tournament in Salisbury, Maryland, validating Manigan as a coach. (In fact, when Williams spoke with TIME, he was in the middle of a seven-match winning streak.)

Candis said he didn’t want to make a movieabout Black trauma. “Unfortunately in America, when it comes to Black stories, there’s something about our trauma that always gets presented front and center,” Candis explains. “I feel like there’s so much in this movie that celebrates the triumph of young Black boys…Walt Manigan had a sad, tragic ending to his life, but what is triumphant, what should be celebrated, what should be discussed with this movie is his living legacy in Quincey and Peanut.”

Williams added that he hopes those who watch the 2026 movie will focus on Manigan’s boxing program rather than the demons he was battling: “Anybody can go through those difficulties in life. Don’t let those moments [take away] from the good things that he’s done for me and Peanut.”

For example, Bartee says part of the reason he became a police officer is because Manigan taught him about “looking out for the people that need help.”

Candis hopes They Fight viewers come away from the movie with a better appreciation for the lesson in courage that the sport teaches. As he puts it, “Life will punch you in the face. Well, you learn in a boxing ring how to take a punch, and that then becomes how you go about your life when you encounter adversity and obstacles.”

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