"not Rocky... It's not clear-cut who you're supposed to root for." He had worked together with Snipes on Broadway earlier, the last time in 1986 in The Boys of Winter. It was a battle to get the film financed with two black stars, particularly as the film need to appeal to international audiences. "There was a lot of pressure to change one of the characters to be white," Giler said, "but we thought it would be unrealistic... We haven't seen a white fighter of merit since Rocky Marciano." Hill said that "heavyweight boxing within the past 50 years has been the purview of black men with a couple of tiny exceptions. This is a movie about boxing so we wanted to get it right. I think that the idea of the heavyweight champion of the world not being a black man would seem extraordinary. But if you did cast a black man as the heavyweight champion and then out him into a prison where the prison champion is white guy - well, what are we talking about?" There was also pressure to make the film less "tough". Snipes recalled, "The film was on. It was off. The money came. The money fell out. Every day, it was a wonder we were making this movie. Then, after we made the film, nobody knew whether it was ever going to come out." He prepared for the role by training with Emanuel Steward, who had trained 1000 world champions, including Wladimir Klitschko, Tommy Hearns and Lennox Lewis. "[My character] was supposed to be the best," Snipes said, "so if I've got to look like the best, and live up to this character, I've got to get the best and work with the best." Rhames was already in peak condition due to preparing for the aborted Liston film; the film's fight choreographer Cole McKay took over training of Rhames once filming began. Filming Undisputed was going to be filmed in a closed-down prison in Jean, Nevada. However, according to Jeanne Corcoran, the Nevada Film Office's production manager, the prison "didn't have the right look. It has a great fence, a good tower, but the interiors tend to be more dormitory-like." Instead it was decided to shoot the film in an unopened wing of the medium-security High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, Nevada. Shooting took place in January and February 2001. The film was