"Worth the time and struggle. This is something very special."
— Leon Gast, Oscar-Winning Director of When We Were Kings
"The boxer's role in Cuba has a more profound role than anywhere else on earth. By design, Fidel's boxers are not just defeating Americans in the ring, they are taking on the American system itself. This is achieved with even more dramatic results when these boxers refuse the lure of tens or even hundreds of millions to leave.
In this way, boxers are a kind of canary in the coal mine for the health and values of the Cuban system itself. America's traditional response is that anyone who'd turn down the big money must be brainwashed. I was curious to find this out for myself. And also I wanted to find out why America and the American media held out no hope that anyone could have a principled stand in rejecting money. That seemed like a brainwashed knee-jerk response in itself."
(Excerpted from director Brin-Jonathan Butler's interview with Boxing Scene Online. Read the full interview.)