The big money sport. Dirty, violent and outside the law.

The plot begins in medias res with a mute Frank Mansfield (played by Warren Oates) locked inside a trailer preparing his best cock for an upcoming fight. He slices the chicken's beak slightly so that it looks cracked in order to increase the betting against him in the upcoming fight. He bets his trailer, girlfriend, and the remainder of his money with fellow cocker Jack (played by Harry Dean Stanton). Mansfield loses the fight (ironically because of the cracked beak), almost all of his belongings, and is set on a rambling path to win the Cockfighter of the Year award.
Frank visits his home town, his family farm, and his long-time fiancée Mary Elizabeth (played by Patricia Pearcy). Mary Elizabeth has long grown tired of Mansfield's cockfighter ways and asks him to settle down with her. Frank decides in favor of cockfighting, leaves Mary Elizabeth, sells the family farm for money to reinvest in chickens, and starts a partnership with Omar Baradinsky (played by Richard B. Shull). The partnership takes them all the way to the cockfighting championships.

The film struggled to find an audience and Roger Corman claims it was the only movie he backed in the 1970s that lost money. He had it recut and reissued under the title Born to Kill but it still did not succeed