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.
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 documentary that 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 abo
