Fighter, The

Instead of growing as a boxer, Dickie was descending deeper and deeper into the destructive world of crack cocaine.  Although he'd fathered a child, and wanted to do right by his son, Eklund was no longer capable of making good decisions.  He was held too tightly in the grip of the poison.

Holding on to his dream of worldwide fame, Dickie still had the talent - he just couldn't use, or develop it, in the best possible way.  Surrounded by other drug users - and rotting debris - he lived in a Lowell crack house.  (In the film, the location is depicted near the intersection of Pine and Stevens.)

People who cared about Dickie could not reach him.  His mind, controlled by drugs, led to delusional thinking.  When HBO came calling, Eklund convinced himself - and members of his family (including his mother) - that documentarians wanted to record his reemergence as a boxing contender.  What the film makers really wanted was something far different.

One of three people featured as "crack heads" in Lowell, Dickie Eklund was starring in the worst of all possible films.  It was the kind of negative publicity which endangers - not promotes - a career.

The documentary - available on DVD, or for online viewing - is extremely hard to watch.  Bad language is just the beginning.  Sordid details about Dickie's life - and those of two crack-influenced house mates - fill frame after frame.  With furniture - if one could call it that - covered with drug paraphernalia, Eklund's house was hardly a home. 

The following summarizes a few key scenes of the film which Eklund thought would promote his come-back:

At  20:58 into the documentary - Dickie goes to jail after he stole to support his crack habit.  It is his 27th arrest. 

At 21:30 - Alice Ward, Dickie's mother, visits him with Dickie's son.  The film makers are allowed into the jail to record the meeting.  "It's a great feeling when they're here," says Dickie.

At 30:00 - Alice tries to raise money to bail Dickie out of jail.  Charging people a dollar to watch old HBO movies, of Dickie's fights, the fundraiser includes the scene where Sugar Ray hits the deck.  Some people say Leonard slipped, and that Dickie never knocked him down.  The film scene includes his sisters.

At 40:11 - Dickie gets out of jail and begins to train his brother, Micky Ward, for an upcoming fight.  His little son, Dickie, is with him.

During the fight, Dickie coaches his brother from the sidelines.  Eklund talks about the possibilities - for himself - had he stayed clean. 

Mickey O'Keefe - a local police officer working with Ward - says jail would be the best thing for Dickie:  "Maybe it will save his life."

At 55:18 - Dickie smokes crack the night before he is sentenced for carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery with a sawed-off shotgun.  Failing to show-up for court, at the appointed time, Eklund tells the judge:  "It was important for me to tell my son."  His mother and sisters are in court, to hear the sentence.  It's long - not more than 15, and not less than 10, years. 

By the time High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell was released (in 1995), Dickie was in prison.  The crimes he'd committed were all to feed his drug habit. 

By the time he finally got out, Eklund was a changed man with a new focus.