“The Fire Inside,” about boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, is not your standard inspirational sports drama, even if it feels like it for the first half of the movie.

There’s the hopeless dream, the difficult home life, the blighted community, the devoted coach, the training montages, the setbacks and, against all odds, the win. We’ve seen this kind of story before, you might think, and you’d be right. But then the movie pulls the rug out from under you: The victory is not the end. “The Fire Inside,” directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Barry Jenkins, is as much about what happens after the win. It’s not always pretty or inspirational, but it is truthful, and important.

Sports dramas can be just as cliche as fairy tales, with the gold medal and beautiful wedding presented as a happy ending. We buy into it time and time again for obvious reasons, but the idea of a happy ending at all, or even an ending, is almost exclusively for the audience. We walk away content that someone has found true love or achieved that impossible goal after all that work. For the subject, however, it’s a different proposition; Life, and all its mundanities, disappointments and hardships, continues after all. And in the world of sports, that high moment often comes so young that it might be easy to look at the rest of the journey as a disappointing comedown.

READ MORE:Claressa Shields: ‘Fire Inside’ puts more pressure on upcoming fight

Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny in the film, was only 17 when she went to the 2012 London Olympics. Everything was stacked against her, including the statistics: No American woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport before. Her opponents had years on her. She was still navigating high school in Flint, Michigan, and things on the home front were volatile and lacking. Food was sometimes scarce as was consistent parental care. Her mother (Olunike Adeliyi) even kicks her out of the home at one point. But Claressa has a savior on her side in the form of her coach, Jason Crutchfield, played by Bryan Tyree Henry, whose calming presence signals to her and the audience that she’s in good hands.

Coach Crutchfield is the one who gives an 11-year-old Claressa a shot in the first place and sticks with her through everything. And she can be a lot to handle, especially post-Olympics when reality comes crashing down. She might have a little more money and the pride of her hometown behind her, but the sponsors are not calling. The male athletes in that 2012 class seem to have skyrocketed to wealth, while she’s thinking about pawning her medal to afford groceries and diapers for her sister’s baby. And she’s not handling it well, or at least how people think a young woman should handle such inequalities. That titular fire inside is in danger of fizzling out before she’s even reached 20 and she’s wondering what it was all for in the first place.

This is the truth of so many Olympic athletes, and professionals as well, that no one really wants to talk about. That glory is guaranteed to be short lived, probably without a multimillion-dollar deal, and then you just have to figure out what to do with the rest of your life. There are only so many commentator jobs out there.

Morrison is a celebrated cinematographer known for “Black Panther,” “Fruitvale Station” and “Mudbound,” making her feature debut as a director. And it’s a promising one, full of beautiful shots, unexpected choices and rousing fights inside the ring, anchored by a thoughtful, engaging script and compelling lead performances. “The Fire Inside” isn’t afraid to show the uglier sides of this journey, even if it makes Claressa “unlikable” for a moment.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 24 (UPI) — Boxer-turned-MMA champion Claressa Shields said the new movie about her life, The Fire Inside, in theaters Wednesday, puts more pressure on her to win her February bout.

The film stars Ryan Destiny as Shields, who became the first American female Olympic gold medalist in boxing in 2012. Shields transitioned into MMA in 2020, but will box against Danielle Perkins on Feb. 2.

On the line in this homecoming bout will be Shields’ WBC heavyweight title and WBO heavyweight title, and she’ll also compete for the vacant WBA title. She has a 15-0 professional boxing record, including three knockouts.

READ MORE:Claressa Shields hits back at Savannah Marshall: ‘You can’t beat me in anything!’…

“Who wants to have a biopic about their great life and their great story come out and then lose a fight with all these new fans?” Shields, 29, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

“To have a biopic come out about your life while you’re the No. 1 woman fighter in the world, it adds a little pressure to your plate,” she said

The film begins in 2006, when an 11-year-old Claressa (Jazmin Headley, with Kylee D. Allen for running scenes) walks into a Flint, Mich., gym. Coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) agrees to train her.

By 2011, 16-year-old Claressa (Ryan Destiny) is a contender for USA Boxing’s female Olympic team. Shields confirmed the film’s training montages reflected her real preparations.

“In the ring, running, push-ups, the crunches, punching the bag, hitting the pads, it was a great training montage,” Shields said. “She did very well.”

Destiny sought Shields’ advice over Zoom, particularly in how to cope with soreness after exhausting training and boxing scenes. Shields told her to rest.

“Go and get a massage, ice bath, hot bath, rest, drink some water,” Shields said. “It’s OK to recover. I think a lot of athletes should do more recovery.”

After winning the gold medal in 2012, Shields still struggled financially. She was not winning endorsement deals like male athletes, and USA Boxing paid female fighters less than their male counterparts.

Shields has been an advocate for pay equality in sports, specifically boxing, bringing it up whenever she can in interviews. She said she’s pleased the pay gap is closing, but feels there is more work to do.

“I try to let other girls know what I’ve learned and give them the blueprint to where they can make millions of dollars being professional women fighters,” she said.

The film did take some artistic license with Shields’ post-Olympic struggles. A scene in which she tries to pawn her gold medal never happened, but Shields said it reflected her frustration that winning the gold did not alleviate her financial struggles.

“I locked it in a drawer for a long time,” Shields said. “I considered throwing it in the Flint River because Muhammed Ali threw his gold medal in the Ohio River.”

Shields said watching The Fire Inside made her emotional and brought back memories of struggles that were not included in the film. The film does touch on Shields’ volatile relationship with her mother (Olunike Adeliyi), going hungry as a child, coping with a loss in the ring and more.

“Seeing how hungry we were when I was a kid, it showed it only two times in the scenes, but it was all the time,” Shields said. “I remember everything else that was going on in my life at that time and it makes me very emotional.”

The film ends in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics. Even in 2024, Shields said she feels like she still has more work to do, like defend her belts in February and win more.

She said her transition to MMA made her feel complete, as well as humbled being thrown to the ground. Shields also learned how to get back up and resist arm bars and other MMA moves.

“I am a complete fighter now,” Shields said. “I was already the best woman fighter in the world in boxing, but now I feel like I can go to the other side and do some damage, too.”

There will be no holiday break for Shields when The Fire Inside opens. She will train for the Perkins fight, and didn’t even let interviews interrupt her regimen.

“I just trained this morning,” Shields said. “I have to. I am eight weeks out from the fight and I have to perform.”