Born a Champion

Mickey Kelley is one of the first American black belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. After a bloody match in Dubai against the rising star Blaine, Kelley steps away from competition and settles into life in Los Angeles as a family man, leaving the sport to his rival, who becomes a major name in mixed martial arts. Years later, a video surfaces online showing that Kelley was cheated out of the win in that fight, and fans begin calling for a rematch. Kelley faces the question of whether to return to the ring and put everything at stake against a younger, more famous opponent.

Alex Ranarivelo directed Born a Champion, his fifth feature, following American Wrestler: The Wizard and Running Wild, both from 2017. He wrote the screenplay with Sean Patrick Flanery, who stars as Kelley. The cast also includes Dennis Quaid as Mason, Katrina Bowden as Layla, Maurice Compte as Rosco, Costas Mandylor as Dimitris and Currie Graham as Burchman. Ali Afshar, Paul J. Alessi and Josh Webber produced the film for ESX Entertainment.

The film runs 111 minutes and was released in January 2021. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from about 5,400 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 from a much smaller base of 148 votes. The two scores are close, suggesting a generally consistent response across both audiences.