“Fighting,” the new Channing Tatum film about underground fistfighting, isn’t likely to please too many people.

Which is too bad because hidden underneath the Hollywood patina and Disneyfied screenplay lurks what could have been a fairly decent movie.

“Fighting” tells the story of Shawn MacArthur (Tatum, the new mumble-form actor from such films as “Step up” and “Stop-Loss”), a kid trying to make it on the mean streets of New York. Though a decent guy – you can tell because he speaks respectfully to his elders, smiles at children and holds doors open for pretty much everyone – he’s capable with his fists.

We learn this right off when he smacks around a bunch of guys who try to rob in as he’s trying to sell some copies of pirated “Harry Potter” books – though, of course, he didn’t know they were fakes. He didn’t even find out until a pretty woman (Zulay Henao) tells him that some of the book’s words are misspelled.

When Shawn happens upon a couple of the guys whom he smacked around, he demands his money back. In the process, though, he listens to a proposition that the group’s leader, Harvey (Terrence Howard), poses to him.

How, Harvey asks him, would you like to make $5,000? “Got your attention now, don’t I?” Harvey asks. And then he agrees to act as the young would-be fighter’s manager.

Pretty soon Shawn finds himself fighting a Russian thug in what looks to be a Brooklyn elder community center. His success there – though a bit delayed and certainly improbable – leads to bigger and better things, both for him and Harvey. And, as it turns out, Zulay.

But Harvey has his own shaky history. And his mouth often gets him in trouble, both with Shawn and with the outlaw gamblers he does business with (all of whom disrespect him at every opportunity). As the movie progresses, Harvey begins to have problems with Shawn, too.

If this all sounds familiar, think of the movie “Hard Times,” Walter Hill’s 1975 feature starring Charles Bronson as the fighter, James Coburn as the manager and Jill Ireland as the love interest. Just move things out of the 1930s and into the first decade of the 21st century, take away the star power and, pretty much, any real respectable fighting scenes.

See, for anyone who has seen the various mixed-martial-arts matches put on by such organizations as the Ultimate Fighting Championship or World Extreme Cagefighting, “Fighting” is as phony as a John Cena WWE match. Not only does the action seem fake, but the fights aren’t even filmed that well.

Too many times the cameras miss what’s going on because the fighters are busy ducking behind members of the crowd. Another thing: The best mixed-martial-arts fighters train their asses off. As Matt Lindland said when he visited Spokane as part of February’s Spokane International Film Festival, he’s been known to train eight hours a day.

In “Fighting,” then only training we see Shawn do is some pushups and shadow boxing on an empty subway train.

So, credibility? “Fighting” has none.

What it does have is some decent acting by Howard, Oscar-nominated for the 2005 film “Hustle & Flow.” In contrast to his usual attitude of arrogance, Howard actually imbues his character with a sense of vulnerability. His Harvey acts like someone who’s had hope offered, and snatched away, one too many times.

And it has Channing, who is never going to challenge, say, Johnny Depp for roles that require him to deliver stirring, believable speeches. Hell, Channing has trouble pronouncing monosyllables. But he does have screen presence. And he can play someone with a natural kind of humility, which always is winning.

Finally, what director and coscreenwriter Dito Montiel has going for him is a sense of authenticity, the kind that is so often found in small, independent, film-festival-type films. Much of “Fighting” feels improvised, and natural – maybe because Channing couldn’t remember his lines, who know? But it’s there enough to show what the film could have been had Montiel tried to make a movie like, say, “Girlfight” instead of the second coming of “Never Back Down.”

In the end, then, “Fighting” may make some money its opening weekend, mostly because viewers will have been tricked into thinking they were getting something different. But it’s likely to fall off fairly quickly, especially since far better – we hope – films are on the horizon.

Until then, I think I’ll go back and check my TV schedule. The WEC has to be playing somewhere. Uriah Faber rules.