The story was inspired by the article "Resurrecting the Champ" by J.R. Moehringer, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine in 1997. Although the article indeed purportedly focused on Bob Satterfield, there are various other differences with the true story. Moehringer had no children, and his father was not well-known, though he did abandon his family, when the writer was an infant.
In the original article in the Los Angeles Times, the gentleman who first makes the journalist question the truth of "the champ's" identity is Ernie Terrell, a heavyweight contender who is perhaps most famous for being severely beaten by Muhammad Ali, after Terrell had refused to refer to Ali by his new name at the weigh-in for their fight, instead addressing Ali by his former name of Cassius Clay.