Entertainment
The All-Time Greatest Boxing Movies Ever Made
What are the best boxing movies of all time? From Rocky to Million Dollar Baby, all the classic movies about boxing are here. Boxing movies are popular because of the passion behind the sport itself, so boxing in film acts as a metaphor for the human condition. Boxing is all about hard work, dedication, and perseverance against the odds. Following a boxer's journey lets an audience share in the pain, the loss, and the triumphant victory of the hero. Whether it's an old classic or one of the great and more recent boxing movies. The Fighter, Southpaw, and Creed II are all great movies about boxing. There's a lot to love about watching a boxer trying to fight his way to the top. But which one these boxing movies should be at the top of this list?
Vote up your picks for all the best boxing movies, and vote down the ones that couldn't take a punch. When you're done voting, check out the Best Boxing Films on Netflix to see which of your boxing favorites are currently streaming.
list ordered by
- Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia, is arbitrarily chosen to take on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), when the ...more
- Although working-class Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) lost his high-profile bout with the cocky world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), his Cinderella story has caught the ...more
- Having become the world heavyweight champion, former working-class boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is rich and famous beyond his wildest dreams, which has made him lazy and overconfident. In ...more
- After reclaiming the boxing championship title, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) plans to retire and live with his wife, Adrian (Talia Shire). However, during an exhibition match, Rocky's friend ...more
- The story of a middleweight boxer as he rises through ranks to earn his first shot at the middleweight crown. He falls in love with a gorgeous girl from the Bronx. The inability to express his ...more
- During the Great Depression, ex-boxer James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) works as a day laborer until his former manager Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) offers him a one-time slot against a rising young ...more
- For Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), boxing is a family affair. His tough-as-nails mother is his manager. His half-brother, Dicky (Christian Bale), once a promising boxer himself, is his very unreliable ...more
- Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a veteran Los Angeles boxing trainer who keeps almost everyone at arm's length, except his old friend and associate Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman). When ...more
- Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his famous father, boxing champion Apollo Creed, who died before Adonis was born. However, boxing is in his blood, so he seeks out Rocky Balboa ...more
- 10In 1985, Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed former U.S. champion Apollo Creed in a tragic match that stunned the world. Against the wishes of trainer Rocky Balboa, Apollo's son Adonis Johnson accepts a ...more
- On October 30, 1974, perhaps the most famous heavyweight championship boxing match of all time took place in Kinshasa, Zaire: the "Rumble in the Jungle" between champion George Foreman and challenger ...more
- 12With wit and athletic genius, with defiant rage and inner grace, Muhammad Ali forever changed the American landscape. Fighting all comers, Ali took on the law, conventions, the status quo and the war ...more
- 13Billy "The Great" Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy ...more
- Now long-retired, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) runs a Philadelphia eatery and mourns the loss of his beloved wife, Adrian. Yearning to recapture a bit of his glory days, he plans to re-enter the ring ...more
- During the Great Depression, Chaney (Charles Bronson) bare-knuckle boxes to survive. Speed (James Coburn), an avid gambler, recognizes his talent and becomes his manager. They hire a cut man named ...more
- The abuse Rocky Barbella (Paul Newman) endures at the hand of his father and subsequent run-ins with the law lead him in and out of detention centers and prisons. When it seems he has it together, ...more
- Fictional aging heavyweight Louis "Mountain" Rivera (Anthony Quinn) is felled by young Cassius Clay, the future Muhammad Ali, and finds his professional career over. His manipulative manager (Jackie ...more
- Billy (Jon Voight) used to be a great boxer, but he's settled into a hardscrabble life that revolves around drinking, training horses, and the one bright spot in his existence -- his young son, T.J. ...more
- After being released from a Georgia prison, smooth-talking con man Gabriel Caine (James Woods) teams up with his partner in crime, Fitz (Oliver Platt), and travels to remote Diggstown. Upon arriving, ...more
- Tells the story of an undefeated world-champion prize fighter (Ving Rhames) who is convicted of rape and sent to prison, where he must confront and ultimately fight the reigning prison boxing ...more
- Rising teen boxer and Belfast native Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) was imprisoned for 14 years after getting involved with the Irish Republican Army. Newly freed from jail in his early 30s, Danny ...more
- Denzel Washington is Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a man whose dreams of winning the middleweight boxing title were destroyed when he was arrested along with another man for the murders of 3 people in a ...more
- Jim Corbett (Errol Flynn) is a bare-knuckles boxer, who is determined to rise above his station. Jim and his friend, Walter Lowrie (Jack Carson) are befriended by Vicki Ware (Alexis Smith), whose ...more
- 24Scrappy Michael "Midge" Kelly (Kirk Douglas), on the run from a shotgun marriage and needing to help support his handicapped brother, Connie (Arthur Kennedy), angles his way into a short-term job as ...more
- Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones) is the boxing heavyweight champion of early 1910s America. But as a black man, he's not only fighting other boxers, but discrimination and prejudice as well. The ...more
