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Being released nine months after The Fighter, an Academy Award-recognized film about boxing and brotherly love, could not have been harder for Warrior. Even though the latest from Miracle director Gavin O’Connor had plenty of skeptics from the very first trailer, Warrior is technically a mixed martial arts movie. Ironically enough, the whole “odds stacked against me” theme the film faced mirrors the story that it relates. So in a way, Warrior‘s timing couldn’t have been more appropriate.

One evening Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) is surprised to find his son Tommy (Tom Hardy) on the doorstep of his Pittsburgh home. As Tommy gets more comfortable with his return to the Steel City, he registers at a local mixed martial arts club where he becomes an online sensation. On the other side of the Keystone State, Paddy’s other estranged son, Brendan (Joel Edgerton) faces financial problems in Philadelphia. In order to escape foreclosure, Brendan sets out on a mixed martial arts road of his own; a road that ultimately brings him face-to-face with his brother.

Throughout Warrior, Tommy and Brendan are kept separate; the grimy solitude of Tommy in the west and the crumbling portrait of Tommy’s family in the east never merge. With the brothers staying in opposite ends of the state, Warrior manages to effectively emphasize the characters’ personal trials rather than mixing them together in a rushed scheme.

Although Hardy’s Tommy is a man of few words (which is probably best considering the majority of the film’s stars have a tendency to use New England accents in Pennsylvania), his thoughtful facial expressions do most of the talking, especially when in the ring. Edgerton’s Brendan, however, is a little more vocal, which, mixed with his “family man” persona, makes him easier to root for when the boys go to battle. But being a citizen of Pittsburgh, I had to show support for Tommy, whose intentions could even be kinder than his brother’s.

Let me take a stab at the question that is on your mind: Is Warrior really better than The Fighter? While the depictions may not be as raw and gut-wrenching as what Christian Bale served up, Warrior‘s characters are more endearing than the profanity-spewing family of The Fighter. Mainly because Nolte is far more parental than Melissa Leo was as a mother to Bale. Warrior also provides more exciting sequences in the ring. Where The Fighter‘s matches seemed choreographed to a punch, when Hardy or Edgerton step into the ring, the possibilities seem plentiful and suspense is at thriller-levels.

Warrior manages to expose one of the more unnoticed combat sports, all while intertwining a warm tale of family and dependence. Even though they don’t have as much onscreen togetherness as Bale and Mark Wahlberg, Hardy and Edgerton manage to share a better brotherly love for each other. With a more relatable repertoire and without the drug content and excess profanity, Warrior knocks The Fighter out when it comes to being enjoyable the morning after.