Advertisement

‘The Fighter’s’ Dicky Eklund talks to Men’s Journal

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.


The real life Dicky Eklund, played by Christian Bale in the Oscar-nominated film ‘The Fighter,’ has not had anything close to a simple life since his on-screen story cut to black after the 2000 fight crowning his half-brother, Micky Ward, WBU World Champion.

A story in the March issue of Men’s Journal magazine on stands now chronicles Eklund’s life. The former welterweight boxing champion, says the article, has been arrested 66 times, several in the last decade and, in the last four years alone, he has been arrested on charges of cocaine possession and a string of assaults, including charges of attempted murder and assaulting his live-in girlfriend.

Advertisement

His relationship with his brother is also strained. Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg in ‘The Fighter,’ did a lot better financially than Eklund, lives in a better neighborhood and as Eklund says in the article, ‘We have to keep each other at arm’s length sometimes.’

Eklund also reveals that after seeing the film for the first time in Los Angeles, he hated it. ‘Micky looks like a million bucks, and I look like a two-dollar bill,’ supporting actor nominee Bale says Eklund complained. Paramount Pictures paid Eklund $193,000 for his life rights but he reportedly blew through all that cash and now survives by training local boxers in Lowell, Mass.

Eklund and Ward’s mother, Alice, also hated the movie version of herself, according to the story. ‘Those women were ugly,’ says Alice, 47, who reportedly received $500 for participating in the film. She was played by Melissa Leo, who received an Oscar supporting actress nomination for the role.

--Nicole Sperling

Advertisement