Jimmy Madrid was a film script writer, an accomplished artist, a Vietnam War Veteran, and a tent fighter. Madrid was a teenager when he joined Les McNabb's Traveling Boxing show in the early 1960s, and spent nine years traveling Australia as a tent fighter. During his career in the travel boxing circuit he fought under the names of Jimmy Brown and Jimmy Merino. Madrid had also worked for Shelby Moore, and at times fought for Jimmy Sharman.
Madrid had joined the army, after almost a decade in the showground circuits and did a tour of duty in Vietnam. After which he lived in Adelaide where he wrote film scripts and received funding from the South Australian Film Commission. Madrid had also played a minor role in the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence.