Originally, the filmmakers only aimed to film a season over three or four months but it didn't quite work out like that, Whitaker explained to the Sunday Tribune. "We didn't ever intend to stay with it for two years. We thought we'd follow them for three months. We were trying to get broadcasters interest and we kept getting refused funding." But the human stories from boxers inside the club, trained by former British champion John McCormack, drove the project forward. "As we were filming more and more interesting things kept happening and a few years later we had so much amazing footage we made it into a feature-length documentary, " Whitaker said. The filmmakers say working on the project was "more than a fulltime job" and, with other jobs of their own and no funding, it made for a tough two years as every move of the boxers' personal and sporting lives were documented.

Among the characters followed is asylum seeker Abdul, from Ghana, who fled his homeland when his uncle, the president of Ghana's central bank, was assassinated. After being imprisoned upon arrival in Germany, he then went to the UK and finally to Ireland where he rapidly progressed at boxing in St Saviours. "He has been here for six years, and in that time gone though different levels of applying for asylum, " Whitaker said. "He still doesn't know about future." Abdul was filmed receiving a letter from immigration officials which he initially thought was granting him asylum. But he read it incorrectly and it actually outlined plans for his deportation.

During filming, another boxer, Darren Sutherland, gave the sport up, only to stage a comeback that recently resulted in him winning a European Union Championship gold medal.

"I had always wanted to do a documentary in a boxing club because they're full of great characters and great stories, " Whitaker said. "It's a tough sport, so the people who tend to be into it are a little different." Whitaker's and Nolan's hard work paid off and eventually the Irish Film Board provided some capital so the pair could finish editing. They have since been contacted by a British distributer about viewing the finished product.

A special screening for the boxers featured in the film is also planned after the world premiere in Galway.