- Knobby discovers young hunk Palooka and trains him to fight the reigning champ, also drunken sot, Al McSwatt.
- Mayme walks out on her husband, Pete Palooka, after he wins the middleweight championship and shows his proclivity for life in the fast lane. She raises son Joe on a farm by herself. When slippery fight manager Knobby Walsh happens to discover Joe's surprising punching power, he signs him. With current champion Al McSwatt needing an easy opponent, Walsh gets Joe the fight. Palooka steals the championship (and girlfriend Nina Madero) from McSwatt, who shows up for the fight drunk. Now it's Joe's turn to live in the fast lane, winning fights (that are set-ups by Walsh) and drinking hard with vamp Nina. However, when McSwatt and his manager trick Joe into a rematch, it's time to test his real boxing talent.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
- When country boy Joe Palooka, son of ex-boxing champion Pete Palooka, knocks out Dynamite Wilson during an argument, Knobby Walsh, Wilson's manager, declares him a pugilistic genius and talks him into signing a contract. Joe leaves his girlfriend Anne and his mother Mayme, a former Broadway star who left her errant husband to raise Joe "clean," without divulging his intentions to Mayme. After Joe is knocked out on the first punch of his first fight, Knobby is about to send him back home when Doc Wise, the manager of middleweight champion Al McSwatt, persuades him to use Joe as a phony challenger. Although he is the better boxer, McSwatt, under the degenerating influence of gold-digging Spanish nightclub dancer Nina Madero, shows up drunk for the bout and loses. Now champion, Joe wins Nina's instant admiration and, while boxing in a series of matches rigged by Knobby, indulges in his success with her. Mayme, having heard the McSwatt fight on the radio, travels to New York to save Joe, but he casually dismisses her admonitions. Tricked by McSwatt into accepting a rematch, Joe learns the truth about his success from Knobby, who tries to persuade him to give up his undeserved title. That same day, however, Pete Palooka arrives in New York and offers to train his son for the match. Though better trained, Joe nonetheless loses the bout, and finally accepts that boxing is not for him. As a final goodwill gesture, Knobby, on the run, gives Joe the money that he won betting against him in the match, which Joe, Mayme, Pete, and Anne use to open Palooka's Country Inn. Later, Knobby visits the inn with his new wife Nina and their newborn, big-nosed baby boy.
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