Resurrecting the Champ

Resurrecting the Champ (2007) is an American drama directed by Rod Lurie — watch online on iFILM. Sports journalist Erik Kernan has spent his career working from under his famous father's shadow. Then he pulls a homeless man out of trouble one night. The man calls himself Champ and claims to be Bob Satterfield — a once-feared boxer everyone assumed was long dead.

The story writes itself. Kernan sees the cover, the comeback, the byline that changes everything. Samuel L. Jackson plays Champ with quiet weight, a man whose dignity survived the street. Josh Hartnett plays Kernan, ambitious and sloppy, chasing the scoop while his relationship with his own young son quietly falls apart. Alan Alda rounds out the cast as an editor who has been around long enough to ask the right uncomfortable questions.

Based on a magazine article by J.R. Moehringer, the film carries a tagline that doubles as a warning: "based on a true story, that was based on a lie." It's a sports drama that ends up being mostly about ego, fatherhood, and what happens when the facts catch up. Stream Resurrecting the Champ (2007) online on iFILM.