"DOUGHBOY" is based on the true story of a journeyman boxer thrust into the spotlight, chosen as a last-minute replacement fighter against reigning champion Tommy Morrison for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

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The year is 1993. Tim “Doughboy” Tomashek is a tall, out-of-shape boxer spending his day off downing hot dogs and beer in the nosebleeds of Kansas City’s Kemper Arena. Tim has been a boxer for ten grueling years, not known for his fighting prowess, but beloved for goofing off and spouting “jeepers” and “noice” with his Midwestern charm. While awaiting the start of the Heavyweight Championship match, Tim is suddenly plucked from his seat by two mysterious men in black suits.

 

It all began in 1973 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tim is in the third grade getting beat up by a girl. Bloodied and bewildered, Tim refuses to fight back as his classmates tease him. Then, without warning, he urinates himself. The "pee incident” becomes town lore and Tim’s destiny. “Most people are motivated for greatness because of a crappy childhood,” Tim muses, “I was motivated by pee.”

 

Growing up, Tim continues finding himself on the bloody end of fights. During a high school basketball game, he gets into a fistfight and receives a technical foul, causing his team to lose by one point. At that moment, Tim decides that he is going to become a professional boxer and “fight dudes, not third-grade chicks.”

 

With the love and support of his tight-knit family, knuckleheaded friends, and steadfast trainer Louie, Tim pursues his dreams and achieves notable success as an amateur boxer. He wins a regional Golden Gloves followed by a bronze medal at the 1986 Olympic Festival (the “off-brand Olympics for average schmucks like me,” he concedes). Tim turns pro and immediately learns the definition of hunger and struggle. He fights for food, beer, and pocket money in run-down venues from Indianapolis to Bismarck to cow pastures. Along the way, he bumps elbows with shady characters who fill the seedy underbelly of the boxing world.

 

By 1993, Tim is dispirited and ready to hang up his gloves when the unbelievable happens. He’s pulled into the ring, chubby and full of beer, as a last-minute replacement for “Mercury” Mike Williams against the reigning Heavyweight Champion Tommy Morrison. Tim shocks the raucous crowd going blow-to-blow with Morrison and charms them by delivering a noogie to the champion's head. Still drunk and having absorbed considerable punishment, Tim goes down in the fourth round as the referee calls the fight.

 

Tim’s extraordinary journey did not end that night. “My fifteen minutes of fame wasn’t over,” he recollects, “I still had three minutes left.” A whirlwind of notoriety and fanfare follows for Tim. He appears on the David Letterman show and delights the nation with his incessant use of the word “jeepers.” Tim continues to win fights but begins to question his path after a fellow boxer suffers a serious brain injury. In his final fight, Tim gets knocked out and experiences a second “pee incident” which makes him realize he needs to quit boxing for good. Tim retires in 1996 and finishes his career with a respectable record of 53-12.

 

In the present day, the real Tim Tomashek is content with a simple life back home in Green Bay surrounded by family and friends. He contemplates, “Family and friends; with its wins, losses, even the low blows; that’s forever, and that’s what it’s all about.” The film ends with Tim in his apartment watching a tape of his Morrison fight and reminiscing. He cracks open a can of beer, raises a toast to us viewers, takes a swig, and proclaims, “And beer! Can’t forget about beer.”