Rope Burns

Million Dollar Baby comes from the short story Rope Burns. Here is some more infor on it:

"Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner", a collection of short stories based on the experiences of long-time fight manager and cutman Jerry Boyd, writing under the pen name F.X. Toole, was published in 2000 by Harper Collins. Toole was 70 at the time and had been writing and battling rejection letters for forty years. "Rope Burns" was his first published work. Soon after its publication he was commissioned to write his first novel, an epic story set on the Texas-Mexico border. He died on 2 September 2002 at age 72, just before his novel was finished. "Rope Burns" was dedicated to Jerry's partner and longtime friend Dub Huntley.