A Leg to Stand On

The Remarkable Story of Anthony Robles, and the new Amazon Prime film that tells it.

Two days ago, on the fourth floor of a nondescript building in midtown Manhattan, a one-legged man stood with his crutches before a hundred young athletes and talked about wrestling and life. He told them about growing up poor and disabled in Mesa, Arizona as his teenage mother tried to make her way in the world, and about the cruelty and bullying and pity he was subjected to.

He shared the core message he imparts to the wrestlers he coaches at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz.

“Chase greatness in life,” Anthony Robles said. “Create measurable goals for yourself that you can achieve every day. Do not focus on the impossible of winning every time. Be able to track your successes and always ask yourself not how I failed but what can i improve upon the next time.”

You may not have heard of Anthony Robles, but that figures to change soon. A feature film about Robles’ life, starring Jharrel Jerome, Don Cheadle and Jennifer Lopez, among others, has its streaming release on Amazon Prime Video today. It’s called “Unstoppable,” and it’s directed by William Goldenberg and produced by Artists Equity, the production company of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The biopic is based on the true story of how Robles came to the Wells Fargo Center in the history-rich city of Philadelphia in the March 2011 and made history of his own, becoming the first one-legged man to capture an NCAA wrestling championship, winning the 125-pound class with a 7-1 victory over the defending champion, Matt McDonough, of Iowa. Robles did it despite being overwhelmed with emotion in the moments beforehand. He had dominated every other wrestler he’d faced en route to the final, by an aggregate score of 45-6. But could he finish the job, against the best wrestler he’d ever faced?

“I was terrified,” Robles said.

Anthony Robles powered through it, because that’s what he does. One of the highlights of making the film came four years ago, when he and his mother, Judy, had dinner with Lopez, who plays Judy Robles in the film. Lopez had so many questions for Judy, and asked most of them. She had plenty for Judy’s son, too.

“He is probably the brightest light of a person I have ever met in my life," Lopez told ESPN recently. "So inspiring. Just a pure soul. So motivational."

Judy Robles once described herself as “a statistic” when she found out she was pregnant with Anthony, a 16-year-old Latina facing a future short on hope and long on hardship. She had no idea her baby would be born with one leg. She faced fierce pressure to give him up for adoption. The baby’s father disappeared, never to resurface. But almost from the moment Judy held her baby boy, she was filled with rapture. Before long her mantra for him was to turn his disability into a puzzle to be figured out, to “not let your challenge become your excuse.” When Anthony was three, a doctor fitted him with a heavy prosthesis. Anthony hated it. He didn’t want a fake leg; he wanted to prove what he could do with the one he had. His mother - “my hero” - was right there with him, a relentlessly protective and positive person who Robles describes as “the embodiment of what we should all strive to be doing . . . working to make the world better for those around us.” He told me he loves how Lopez portrays Judy Robles in the film.

“She took the time to understand everything my mom had to deal with and to embody all the positive energy and drive she has to this day,” Robles said. “When I look at Jennifer I see my mom in the best way possible.”

Robles came to wrestling almost by accident, at the suggestion of a cousin. He joined the high-school team as a 90-pound freshman and got pinned in his first match. He finished last in the city tournament that season, but improved rapidly by the end of his sophomore year, refining his technique and discovering that having hands like clamps (one of the good things about using crutches for your whole life) and a powerful upper body could be massive assets on the mat. Robles went 96-0 in his last two years in high school, winning a national high-school championship and wrestling his way onto the powerful Arizona State team. He left ASU with a degree in business communications and a standing as one of the school’s all-time greats, a three-time All-American with a career mark of 122-23, including a 36-0 senior season, culminating with the victory over McDonough in the 125-pound title match in Philadelphia.

Robles, now 36, is almost a decade and a half removed from his NCAA glory, but still looks as if he could pin the world. He was the stunt double for Jharrel Jerome in the film’s wrestling scenes, and has set all kinds of Guinness pullup records (including 62 in one minute and 23 with an 80-pound pack on his back) in recent years. During his visit to New York to promote “Unstoppable” earlier this week, he made a point to stop by the midtown building that is the home of Beat The Streets, the largest inner- city wrestling program in the country, one that has helped launch the collegiate and professional careers of thousands of young people, using the values inculcated by wrestling as a vehicle. Robles demonstrated some of his techniques on the mat, and shared the message of empowerment his mother helped instill.

“Anthony was fantastic,” said Brendan Buckley, CEO of Beat The Streets. “His story is so aligned with the wrestling mission. He is the most extreme example of defying the odds with faith, hard work and determination.”

Judy and Anthony Robles

Robles was a man on the move in his trip to the city, doing dozens of interviews, a Zoom here, a studio sitdown there, talking about the surreal thrill of seeing his life on the big screen. Before he left, I asked him, in a life defined by overcoming virtually everything, what he considers the greatest challenge he has ever had to face.

“It was not physical,” he said. “It was mental. Whatever shortcomings you have physically you cannot allow them to deflate you mentally. That's where you lose - giving up or despairing, or thinking you can’t do it. That's really difficult to overcome, more so than almost any physical disadvantage you can have.”

Four months after becoming an NCAA champion, Anthony Robles won the ESPY award for perseverance. He ended his short acceptance speech with a poem. He wrote it. I’d try to write a better ending to his story, but I can’t.

"Every soul who comes to earth
with a leg or two at birth
must wrestle his opponents knowing it's not what is,
it's what can be that measures worth.
Make it hard, just make it possible
and through pain I'll not complain.
My spirit is unconquerable,
fearless I will face each foe, for I know I am capable.
I don't care what's probable,
through blood, sweat, and tears, I am unstoppable."

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