Richard "Dicky" Eklund,Jr. (born May 9, 1957) is an American former professional boxer in the Welterweight division. A former New England Welterweight Champion, Eklund was known as "The Pride of Lowell". He is the half-brother and former trainer of former WBU World Champion Micky Ward. The 2010 biopic The Fighter is based on the two brothers' fall and rise to the boxing title.

After an amateur boxing career of over 100 bouts, Eklund turned professional. Eklund fought professionally as Dick Eklund; "Dicky" was a nickname used by his family and friends. Prior to his 1978 match with future world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, Eklund's most impressive victory was over undefeated Rufus Miller (6-0-1) in 1976.

Eklund's most notable fight was on July 18, 1978, against Sugar Ray Leonard at the Hynes Memorial Auditorium in Boston, Massachusetts. He went the distance against Leonard, who eventually won the fight by unanimous decision. During the fight, Eklund was knocked down twice. In the ninth round, the fighters got wrapped up and Leonard tripped, which was counted as a trip by the referee. In the movie, The Fighter, Eklund claims to have knocked down Leonard in their match. A video of the fight shows a punch/push and Leonard falling to the canvas on his back. The official verdict by the referee Tommy Rawson was a slip. In an interview regarding the knockdown,Leonard said, "I slipped."

Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Wilfred Benítez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was named "Boxer of the Decade" for the 1980s.

Leonard, the fifth of seven children, was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Cicero and Getha Leonard. He grew up in Wilmington, N.C. When he was three, the family moved to Washington, D.C. When he was ten, they settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland. His father worked as a supermarket night manager, his mother was a nurse.

Leonard was a shy child, and aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a Seat Pleasant flood, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, reading comic books and playing with his dog. "He never did talk too much," his mother said. "We never could tell what he was thinking. But I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him."

Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.

Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). He played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. He is also notable for his role as serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000), and for portraying Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and the upcoming finale The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In 2010, Bale portrayed Dicky Eklund in the biopic The Fighter. He received critical acclaim for his role and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

Micky Ward (born October 4, 1965), nicknamed Irish, is a retired American junior welterweight professional boxer and a former WBU champion from Lowell, Massachusetts. He is widely known as the protagonist in the 2010 feature film based on his career titled The Fighter, in which he is portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, and culminating with his title bout against Shea Neary.

Ward was a three-time New England Golden Gloves champion boxer who turned pro in 1985, winning his first fourteen fights. However, his career leveled off, and after losing four consecutive fights in 1990/91, Ward took a hiatus from boxing.

During Ward's time away from the sport, he used some of the funds from his day job on a road-paving crew to have surgery on his right hand, with which he had problems during several bouts. The surgery used some of the bone from Ward's pelvis to strengthen and fuse the bones in his hand. His half-brother, former boxer Dicky Eklund, who was struggling with drug addiction and had just been released from jail on charges including drug possession, convinced Ward to take up the sport again.