5th Street

5th STREET is a contemporary bilingual TV series with a bible and pilot set in Miami and Miami Beach. The pilot opens when ROBERTO "BOBBY RAY" REYES, a Heavyweight contender, is hit with a crashing right hook that sends him and his dreams of wealth and glory to the canvas. Hospitalized for weeks in a coma after the near-fatal punch, Bobby Ray awakens to find that, not only will he never be able to fight again; his manager has left him penniless and his mobster backers want their money. Hopeless, he struggles with the thought of suicide until he gets a phone call from DIEGO SANCHEZ, his former manager and owner of the legendary 5th Street Gym where Muhammad Ali used to train. A soft-spoken James Olmos type, Diego offers him a job as a trainer at the gym and a chance to recover his life. Bobby Ray takes him up on the offer. Back in Miami, Bobby Ray discovers that Diego hired him because he's too busy working with the kids and street gangs in the hood. Bobby Ray can't understand this. He isn't about to give up any of his "borrowed time" for anyone but himself. Bobby Ray also falls back in love with Diego's 20-something daughter ANNA SANCHEZ. Once lovers, Bobby Ray abandoned her-- and her father-- to chase fame and glory. Now she's in a relationship with a wealthy developer. In an effort to win her back-- and to get rich quick-- he takes a position as the club fighter at a new nightclub built around an MMA cage called "Fight Club". These two styles of combat-- between the old school "gentleman's" game and the street-fighting style of MMA-- become thematic metaphors for the series. The pilot ends with Diego supporting a bloody and beaten Bobby Ray back to his apartment-- not from a beating in the MMA cage but from the mobsters who tracked him down and want him to fight for them just one more time-- in exchange for canceling his debt and not killing him. Master and teacher. Idealist and nihilist. Stories from the ‘hood and the ring. Stories about the little guy trying to make a buck, to pay the rent, to earn respect. Stories about the fight game and the warrior-dreamers who train so hard in the gym to attain wealth and fame. Everyone, rich and poor, young and old, the ugly and the beautiful, all struggling to make it happen on South Beach. And, in the middle of this swirling frenzy for a piece of the pie sits Diego Sanchez, centered, enlightened, at peace. This is “5th Street.”