The Undefeated

A powerful and unique drama about how real love inspires us to overcome our vices for the sake of others - and how the pursuit of happiness without truth destroys people, then families, and ultimately, our society. 

Charlie is a hopelessly self-absorbed 19 year-old that aspires to be a writer.  He’s naive, honest, and comically innocent.  In The Undefeated, he tells the story of a most unusual event.  His brother, Abe, a great boxing champion in exile due to the corruption of his sport, agrees to take part in a match like no other.  It’s a winner-take-all fight with no rules and no time limits between Abe and the world’s best MMA fighter.  The whole thing is unsanctioned and, therefore, illegal.  But the pot is a billion dollars to the winner.  Abe agrees to the match, but not for reasons anyone suspects.  

The host of the event is an eccentric and old billionaire, Bernard Tucker.  He’s dying soon and the fight is his statement about freedom, honor and risk.  Bernard came up the old way - saving, taking risks, and working hard.  He wants the match to show the spirit of men who achieve greatness in life, who risk it all for what they love and don’t play it safe.  Bernard is all-in; he’s fiercely independent and abhors the code of our age where people are brought up to believe they deserve security instead of achieving it themselves.

Samantha (Sam) is his granddaughter.  She’s a photographer, a passionate and lovely young woman, who’s heartbroken to be losing her greatest friend and influence - Bernard.  Charlie falls desperately in love with her and before the fight they spend long hours together listening to old records in her favorite place on earth - an old shack in the water off Bernard’s property along the Gulf Coast of Florida.  He knows she’ll never love him the way he loves her but he falls anyway and his heartbreak ultimately teaches him deep lessons about himself…and life.

In all, The Undefeated is a novel about what’s wrong with America.  Our loss of the transcendent, our rejection of duty, and our pursuit of hedonism in the name of freedom has fractured the family and developed an economy of debt.  The pursuit of instant gratification is antithetical to love.  But The Undefeated is also about the greatness of real love and how we can find our way back.  It’s a story about a writer, a fighter, an artist, and a billionaire who come together one hot August off the Florida coast.  They all fight in their own way.  And in all the simple romance, beauty, and brutal violence, they stand together - undefeated.