EXCLUSIVE: It’s remembered as one of boxing’s most controversial title fights, and now a documentary feature will relive that fateful night.
All-time great Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr.’s victory over WBC Welterweight champ Victor ‘Vicious’ Ortiz on September 17, 2011 will be told in Re-Match, a doc from director Dexton Deboree (Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1, Best Shape of My Life with Will Smith).
Frank Ariza’s production house, AF Films, and Spanish-British actress-producer Itziar Fay are producing.
In the fourth round of a spiky fight, Mayweather knocked out reigning WBC champ Ortiz in controversial fashion. Ortiz appeared to be apologizing to referee Joe Cortez for delivering a headbutt and stepped back without defending himself, only for Mayweather to land a pair of punches that knocked him down and left him unable to continue. Ortiz claim the blow came before Cortez had officially resumed the fight, though others say it had never been stopped in the first place. There are also those who say Mayweather’s combination punches broke a tactic code of professional conduct.
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Re-Match will provide a fresh look at the events through interviews with the protagonists, archive footage and infographics. The plan is for the iconic moment to be understood from multiple perspectives.
Deboree, the director, last year struck a first-look deal with Michael D. Ratner’s company, OBB Pictures, but this doc is outside that agreement.
He has worked on the likes of James Bond film Quantum of Solace, while his series Promiseland, starring NBA Rookie of the Year Ja Morant, aired last year on Crackle. He served as showrunner and director for YouTube Originals series Best Shape of My Life, starring Will Smith, and for The Game Plan, starring Shaquille O’Neal and a series of guest stars from the worlds of sports and culture. Deboree is also the founder of creative content company Falkon.
AF, which has a main production base in the Canary Islands, has produced more than 30 titles, including films such as ¡Ay, mi Madre!, Con los Años que me Quedan, Reversión, El Vestido and La Silla. In television, it made Perdóname Señor and Mariachis, and has worked with the likes of MGM, HBO Max, ABC, Disney+, Amazon and Netflix.
In August, we revealed it had attached Spanish-language cinema veteran Susi Sánchez to El Mal Hijo, the debut feature directed by actor Jaime Lorente. AF is also making Elegido, a social thriller inspired by a set of notorious race riots in El Ejido, southern Spain, in 2000. Lluís Quílez, best known for directing the buzzy Netflix crime drama Below Zero, is directing.