Knockout is a 2000 American boxing film directed by Lorenzo Doumani and starring Sophia Adella Hernandez.
In Los Angeles, Isabelle "Belle" Alvarado takes up boxing when one of her friends, herself a boxer, is viciously beaten in the ring. Drawing inspiration from her father, a Golden Gloves champion who had to give up the sport years earlier to focus on his family, Belle seeks to avenge her friend.
Not to be confused with The Knockout.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Name: A couple:
- Tanya "The Terminator" Tessaro
- Ron Regent
- Artistic License – Medicine: During her fight with Tessaro, Sandra is not shown onscreen receiving any blows to the spinal column or near to it, making it unclear how she was paralyzed from the waist down as a result. While she does take a number of shots to the head, any serious damage dealt to her head or neck would have paralyzed her entire body, not just her lower half as the film depicts.
- Artistic License – Sports:
- On three separate occasions during her fight with Tanya Tessaro, Sandra takes close to 30 unanswered punches, many to the head. At no point does the referee step in to even at least give her an 8-count.
- One of Belle's fights in her success montage is against a large woman who looks to be at least two, if not three, weight classes above her.
- In the championship fight, both Belle and Tessaro hit each other after the bell numerous times and Tessaro even headbutts Belle in the penultimate round. Neither are ever given point deductions or even warnings for their illegal moves, and the only time the referee ever intervenes is when Tessaro throws Belle to the canvas during a clinch at the start of the fight.
- As Himself: Professional boxer Shane Mosley plays himself, showing up as a color commentator for the championship fight.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played with. All the female boxers end up sweaty and disheveled in their fights, but blood and bruising are fairly rare, with the only prominent exception being the bloody cut over Belle's eye after Tessaro headbutts her. This is actually a case of Truth in Television, as many professional boxing matches have ended with both fighters looking unmarked despite taking heavy blows throughout.
- Bilingual Bonus: Mario and Chuck have a brief exchange in untranslated Spanish.
- Bittersweet Ending: Belle wins the WFBA world lightweight title and gets together with Mario, but both her parents are now dead and Sandra is likely a paraplegic for life.
- Casting Gag:
- Paul Winfield, who plays promoter Ron Regent and whose character has a professional rivalry of sorts with real-life promoter Don King, previously portrayed King in the 1995 HBO film Tyson. Winfield also voiced Lucius Sweet, a Don King-esque character, on a 1996 episode of The Simpsons called "The Homer They Fall".
- In addition to being a real-life pro boxer, Fredia Gibbs, who plays Tanya Tessaro, also had "Cheetah" as one of her nicknames; Tessaro wears cheetah-print trunks.
- The referee who oversees the championship fight between Belle and Tessero is portrayed by the late Lou Filippo, a real-life referee and former boxer who had previously appeared in the first five Rocky films.
- Casualty in the Ring: Sandra is left comatose and paraplegic after her fight with Tessaro. She at least wakes up, though.
- Covers Always Lie: Some posters
◊ show Belle looking far more bruised and beaten up than she ever looks in the actual film. - Creator Cameo: Director Lorenzo Doumani plays the ring announcer.
- Double-Meaning Title: Aside from the boxing connotation, "knockout" is a slang term for an attractive woman.
- Dramatic Spine Injury: Sandra is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of her fight with Tessaro, with it being noted that she will likely never walk again.
- Easily-Distracted Referee: Despite Tessaro visibly restraining Belle before head-butting her, with even the commentators noting that it was clearly deliberate, the referee rules the headbutt as accidental and Tessaro faces no repercussions for it.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Belle objects to "Ragin' Cajun," the first ring name Ron Regent bestows on her, since her heritage is Mexican, not Cajun. Regent simply asks if she knows anything that rhymes with "Mexican".
- Expy: Tony Burton portrays one of Belle's trainers, Hawkins, with the character clearly meant to resemble his iconic role of Tony "Duke" Evers from the Rocky films.
- Final Battle: The climax is a title bout where Belle fights Tanya "The Terminator" Tessaro - the same fighter that paralysed Sandra - for the WFBA world lightweight championship.
- Girly Bruiser: Downplayed with Belle. She's rather feminine and a few characters mention her good looks, but she dresses in practical workout gear when it's time to train.
- Implied Death Threat: Doubles as a Kick the Dog moment. Before their fight begins, Tessaro remarks that she's going to send Belle back to see her father. Given that Chuck recently died, and his death nearly prompted Belle to drop out of the fight, it's clear what Tessaro is implying.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Belle, after she wins the world lightweight title.
- Informed Ability: During their bout, Sandra says that Tessaro is too strong and resilient, claiming that she keeps hitting her and it has no effect. In execution, Sandra is clearly not even trying to hit Tessaro.
- Period Piece: [[Subverted|Trope]]. The nine-year-old Belle is shown listening to the Thrilla in Manila, which took place in 1975, in the opening flashback, and the main story explicitly takes place 15 years later, seemingly setting the bulk of the film in 1990. But this is contradicted later in the film when Belle visits Chuck's grave and the headstone clearly reads 1998, indicating a continuity error on the filmmakers' part.
- Pragmatic Villainy: When she is unable to knock Belle out, a tired Tessaro resorts to headbutting her in the seventh round, opening a cut over Belle's eye that she continues to target for the rest of the fight. This not only weakens Belle's defences, but her injury almost prompts the referee to stop the fight and go to the scorecards, which would make Tessaro the winner due to her being ahead on points. However, Belle is able to convince the referee to allow one more round, which enables her to finally knock out Tessaro and emerge victorious.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: Chuck Alvarado was a Golden Gloves champion in his youth.
- Religious Bruiser: Belle is a Christian. In an interview after one of her victories, she thanks God and quotes scripture. She also regularly wears a cross necklace, uses a gospel-esque song as her walkout music, and has a cross printed on the back of her boxing robe.
- Straw Misogynist: The main announcer during the championship fight makes several patronising comments about Belle and the idea of women's boxing in general. He suggests that Belle's beauty puts her at a disadvantage in the ring, and asks his fellow commentator without a hint of irony if he believes women's boxing is legitimate, despite female participation in the sport already being commonplace at the time of the film's release.
- Time-Compression Montage: After Belle wins her first fight, one of these occurs, spanning several fights and magazine cover appearances as she works her way up in the boxing world.
- Training Montage: Belle has a couple: one before her first fight and one before her world title bout.
- You Go, Girl!: Belle knocked out a boy in her first sparring match at age nine, though she also got a black eye.
