described Crowe<\/a> as a \u201cgutless worm\u201d.<\/p>\n9) Journeyman (2017) \u2014 Paddy Considine<\/p>\n
This is grim, gritty and a bit great. It involves post-fight brain surgery, suicidal ideation and domestic violence before boxing rescues Considine. Boxing has always appealed to writers because of its grubby romance and its status as both a trap and refuge. With Considine and Jodie Whittaker setting the perfect tone, this is one of the best broken-man-tries-to-fix-himself boxing flicks. Footnote: UFC champion Michael Bisping retired after watching the film, saying he did not want to become another Matty Burton. <\/p>\n
8) Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) \u2014 Paul Newman<\/p>\n
This is a fairly straightforward run through the life of Rocky Graziano, a juvenile delinquent turned middleweight champion in the 1940s. It builds towards the climactic title fight with Tony Zale and has enough sleaze \u2014 blackmail, fixed fight etc \u2014 to please the theatre-going audience of the time. <\/p>\n
It has its flaws. I\u2019m a paid-up fan of Paul Newman, who interviewed Graziano several times in preparation, but this is one of his first starring roles and the over-acting is hammy at times. The role had been due to go to James Dean, but he died in a car crash before filming began. Steve McQueen has an uncredited bit-part. Footnote: Zale was due to play himself in the fight but was dropped after refusing to pull his punches.<\/p>\n
7) The Fighter (2010) \u2014 Mark Wahlberg<\/p>\n
Although it sticks to the narrative arc of lose-struggle-win, The Fighter is really a story about brothers. Micky Ward, a real survivor of numerous Fight of the Year contenders, has to deal with his cocaine addict half-brother Dicky Eklund, as well as self-doubt and opponents. It is raised above most boxing movies by Christian Bale\u2019s performance as Dicky, Ward\u2019s deluded trainer, while Ward\u2019s reckless courage makes him analogous to Rocky Balboa. <\/p>\n
The epilogue states Micky retired and married Charlene while Dicky is a local legend, but the truth was not so glossy. Ward developed symptoms of brain disease CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and has agreed to donate his brain for research after being approached by Chris Nowinski, the former WWE wrestler who set up the Boston University CTE Center. Nowinski lamented: \u201cWe tried to tell his story when he pledged his brain, that Micky, the toughest guy ever, was telling you to stop doing this [head sparring]. Nobody cared.\u201d <\/p>\n
6) The Set-Up (1949) \u2014 Robert Ryan<\/p>\n
The only boxing flick in the list based on a narrative poem. Ryan is \u201cStoker\u201d, another journeyman whose wife wants him to give up. His manager is so convinced of his waning ability that he takes mob money for a dive, but does not bother to inform his man. Stoker finds out about the set-up in the fourth round, rallies and wins, and then duly gets his hands broken with a brick in a back alley. His wife finds him and, knowing he can never fight again, conjures up a classic film noir pay-off: \u201cYou won tonight. We both won tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n
The poet behind The Set-Up quickly distanced himself from the film. Joseph Moncure March said: \u201cI was really disgusted to find that the hero of the picture was no longer a Negro fighter \u2014 they had turned him into a white man. The whole point of the narrative had been tossed out the window. Ah, Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The studio, RKO, claimed they had no black actors under contract, but the whitewashing of boxing in the 1940s was a reflection of a segregated society. The film critic Christina Newland pointed out that during the 11 years of Joe Louis\u2019 reign as heavyweight champion, no major studio released a boxing film with a black protagonist.<\/p>\n
5) Creed (2015) \u2014 Michael B Jordan<\/p>\n
Or Rocky 7 to some. Creed is surprisingly good, as the son of Apollo Creed recruits Rocky, still Stallone of course, with the aim of fighting Tony Bellew at Goodison Park. It sounds like something from a Jake Paul fever dream, but Stallone\u2019s understated performance mines the nostalgia and old-pro tropes to good effect. Footnote: The epic fight scene was filmed in one continuous shot. <\/p>\n
4) Raging Bull (1980) \u2014 Robert De Niro<\/p>\n
This has film critics salivating in a way sport normally only prompts when pundits discuss wall passes at Manchester City. Middleweight champ Jake LaMotta\u2019s story is brutal, visceral and unflinching, and has to be on the list, but it is not the best in my opinion. As a study of jealousy, domestic abuse and toxic masculinity, it is peerless, but it is unremittingly cold. De Niro got the Oscar, but there\u2019s no light here, just shady men. Footnote: De Niro gained 60lb to portray the older LaMotta. Crowe lost 40lb to play Braddock. <\/p>\n
3) Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) \u2014 Anthony Quinn<\/p>\n
Fascinating just for its mesmerising fictional bout between Mountain Rivera (Quinn) and a young Cassius Clay that plays out even before the titles have finished, this is another film that features the has-been, the fix (an obsession in older fight films) and mobsters looking for their money back. It\u2019s fair to say this film hates boxing and is essentially about a fighter\u2019s twisted relationship with his manager, even to the point of suffering a humiliating wrestling finale to save his skin. Footnote: Quinn made this when \u201cLawrence of Arabia\u201d stalled shooting for two months.<\/p>\n
2) Rocky (1976) \u2014 Sylvester Stallone<\/p>\n
Yes, it is corny, schmaltzy and now looks like a tick-box exercise (sagacious trainer, training montage, uplifting ending), but it does everything to such a high standard and is part of modern culture. Where it works more than many boxing films is Stallone clearly likes the sport, or at least has empathy for the people in it, and so there is an authenticity to it (Rocky\u2019s training run was done through Philadelphia without public knowledge, so when a punter throws an orange to him it is entirely spontaneous). <\/p>\n
There are lots of good lines too. Burgess Meredith tells him: \u201cYou\u2019re gonna eat lightnin\u2019 and crap thunder.\u201d Good enough to see off All the President\u2019s Men and Taxi Driver at the 1977 Oscars anyway. Footnote: the great Scottish fighter Ken Buchanan claimed Stallone \u201cowes me\u201d<\/a> for the scene when he has his trainer cut his swollen eyelid with a razor blade. That happened for real in Buchanan\u2019s epic title bout with Ismael Laguna in 1971.<\/p>\n1) Fat City (1972) \u2014 Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges<\/p>\n
This John Huston box-office flop is bleak but dazzling. One washed-up fighter and one kid going nowhere try to keep hold of dreams amid mounting evidence that there is no hope. When Keach finally gets a win, you see him begin to wonder what it is all about. <\/p>\n
![\"Stacy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/2d940d85-b2c0-4a85-913a-0f3b7c2f13f2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Stacy Keach, left, as Billy Tully and Susan Tyrrell as Oma Lee Greer<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dead-end world of losers, like a Bruce Springsteen song with lots of minor chords but shiny shorts. It\u2019s the best boxing film because it nails the sadness like no other. Ultimately, Fat City knows that all life\u2019s strugglers can do is go another round. It\u2019s anti-Rocky. Footnote: Huston was a talented amateur boxer in his teens until a broken nose ended his career. In 2023 his grandson, Jack, made the lovingly-shot but clich\u00e9d Day Of The Fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another big boxing film is here. This time Prince Naseem Hamed gets the Rocky treatment. We know this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-398722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sylvester](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/a620aec0-fe75-4b89-9d00-96c0fbd64e20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n