UNDER THE RADAR: Boxing Movies
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
One of the most beloved and popular subgenres in the sports movie world is, of course, the boxing movie. Boxing movies have been incredibly popular since the early days of cinema.
We love boxing movies, especially the underdog stories. It’s a perfect genre for that. It’s a great way to tell a story, to get the audience involved, to make them cheer, to make it personal and relatable. Everybody can identify with the struggle, the fight, the comeback, the one last shot.
We all love a good underdog story, and one of the greatest genres in which to tell a really compelling, effective underdog story is, of course, through the world of boxing.
Boxing has been the subject of dozens (no, hundreds) of films over the decades. And in honor of the release of the new movie Christy, which is a boxing biopic starring Sydney Sweeney (and, unfortunately, a really terrible one), I figured it was time to go back and look at the good ones.
Now, Christy is a disaster, with a bad script, terrible direction, and an especially weak lead performance from Sydney Sweeney, who, let’s face it, continues to prove that she’s a one-note, pretty terrible actress.
So, instead of wallowing in that mess, I thought: let’s celebrate some of the boxing movies that actually get it right, the ones that hit hard, that move you, that are well-acted, well-written, and criminally overlooked.
Everybody’s got their favorite boxing movie. Obviously, the Rocky series is the crown jewel. Those movies have spanned decades, and the first one (from 1976) is still considered one of the greatest underdog movies ever made. It won Best Picture that year, beating out Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President’s Men.
It had no business winning, but it did, and that says something about how much people love a great boxing story. And yeah, the Rocky movies are great.
Then there’s Raging Bull, which is a masterpiece. Million Dollar Baby. Cinderella Man. The Boxer with Daniel Day-Lewis. The Champ, both versions, but especially the 1979 one with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder that still destroys me every time I see it.
The Hurricane with Denzel Washington. The Great White Hype, which is hilarious. Play It to the Bone with Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas. Against the Ropes with Meg Ryan.
Even Uptown Saturday Night and Let’s Do It Again, which were both comedies, have boxing in them. Ryan O’Neal boxed his way through The Main Event with Barbra Streisand.
And if you go back to the old days, you’ve got The Battling Butler with Buster Keaton, Kid Galahad with Edward G. Robinson, even The Prize Fighter with Don Knotts and Tim Conway.
And Mickey Rourke, who literally changed his entire face and life for boxing, made Homeboy, which is a weird, gritty little gem that I’ve always liked.
So yeah, there are plenty of famous, beloved boxing movies... the ones everybody knows.
Rocky, Raging Bull, The Champ. Those are the classics, the Mount Rushmore of fight films. But what I want to do now is shine a light on some of the others...you know, the ones that don’t get talked about enough, that slipped through the cracks, that deserve a lot more love.
These are the underrated, underseen, overlooked boxing and fighting movies that are just as passionate, just as well-acted, and in some cases, just as powerful as the big ones.
For every four Rocky movies, there’s one or two smaller, grittier boxing films out there that hardly anybody saw, but they’re great. They remind you why the genre works so well: because boxing, at its core, is about survival, redemption, and finding yourself in the middle of a ring when you’ve got nothing left. It’s not just about fighting... it’s about life.
So, as a reminder of how good and how varied the boxing movie genre can be, here are my picks for 10 underrated, underseen, and genuinely great boxing movies that deserve your time.
A couple of quick notes before we start: I didn’t include documentaries here, even though there are some truly incredible ones (When We Were Kings, Tyson, Thrilla in Manila, The Smashing Machine, they are all classics). I’ll save that for another list.
This one’s strictly about movies. Narratives. Fictional stories that take the spirit of boxing and do something really special with it.
They’re under the radar. They’re underappreciated. They’re underrated. But they’re terrific.
And here they are…
Nick Digilio’s 10 Great, Underrated Boxing Films (In Random Order):
This is one of those tough, gritty, beautifully simple movies that just hits you right in the jaw. Walter Hill’s first film, and boy does it announce him as a filmmaker who knows how to tell a story with pure muscle.
Charles Bronson stars as a bare-knuckle boxer during the Great Depression, and he barely says a word, but he doesn’t need to. The guy is the movie. He’s all quiet confidence and bottled-up rage. James Coburn plays his fast-talking hustler manager, and the chemistry between those two is electric.
This is an old-school, man’s-man kind of movie, but it’s also surprisingly emotional, and Bronson gives one of his best, most controlled performances. It’s shot beautifully, it’s mean, it’s stripped-down, and it’s just cool as hell. No nonsense, no frills, it's just fists, sweat, and honor.
Michelle Rodriguez came out swinging (literally) in this one. Girlfight is one of the best debut performances I’ve ever seen from anyone. She’s raw, she’s angry, she’s charismatic, and completely believable as a teenage girl trying to fight her way out of a bad environment and into the boxing ring.
Karyn Kusama directed this with a ton of style and heart, and it’s still her best movie. It’s a feminist boxing movie without ever feeling preachy, it’s just real. The training scenes are fantastic, the fights are brutal, and the emotional core is rock solid. Rodriguez, although a terrific actress, never really topped this performance (she’s been cashing Fast & Furious checks for twenty years) but this was her moment.
This one is not an easy sit, but man, it’s powerful. Based on a true story, it’s about a British boxer who ends up in one of the most violent prisons in Thailand and has to fight his way, literally, through Muay Thai matches to survive.
Joe Cole, who you might know from Peaky Blinders, gives an unbelievably physical and haunting performance. The film is shot on location in an actual Thai prison with real inmates, and it feels real.
The violence, the sweat, the desperation, it’s immersive and terrifying. It’s not a feel-good sports movie; it’s a survival movie, a redemption movie, a descent-into-hell-and-back movie. If Raging Bull is operatic, this is primal.
This one got dismissed too quickly when it came out, and I’ve never understood why. Yeah, it’s melodramatic. Yeah, it’s familiar. But damn it, Jake Gyllenhaal kills it in this movie. He’s all in: physically, emotionally, everything. He trained like a real fighter, and it shows.
Antoine Fuqua directs it like a Greek tragedy, it's violent, overblown, and full of emotion. Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, and even the kid are great.
The cinematography during the fights is incredible, as you feel every punch. People wrote this off because it’s “just another boxing movie,” but if you actually watch it, it’s a great modern entry into the genre. Plus, that Eminem soundtrack is killer.
Miles Teller, who you might not buy as a boxer, is terrific in this movie. He plays real-life boxer Vinny Pazienza, who was told he’d never fight again after a devastating car accident, but refused to quit. The true story is insane, the guy literally trained with a halo screwed into his skull, and Teller makes it completely believable.
Aaron Eckhart, rocking a beer gut and a bad haircut, steals every scene as his alcoholic trainer. It’s a rough, gritty, funny, emotional boxing movie that somehow got lost in the shuffle. It’s got the heart of Rocky and the grit of Raging Bull, and if you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out.
This is one of the most underrated noir films ever made, and one of the greatest boxing movies, period. Robert Wise (who later directed West Side Story and The Haunting) gives us a story that takes place in real time, and it is about 72 minutes of cinematic perfection.
Robert Ryan, who was actually an amateur boxer in real life, plays a washed-up fighter who doesn’t realize his manager has sold him out to the mob. The cinematography is gorgeous (all shadows and cigarette smoke) and the movie perfectly captures the brutality and loneliness of the sport. Every punch feels like the end of the world. It’s poetry in black and white.
Same year, different vibe. Kirk Douglas plays one of the biggest jerks in movie history, and it’s glorious. Champion is the story of a selfish, ambitious boxer who fights his way to the top by destroying everyone around him, including himself.
Douglas is electric here, and it’s one of the best performances of his career. This movie doesn’t glorify boxing; it shows it as a dirty, corrupt, soul-sucking business, and that honesty still hits hard today. It’s basically the prototype for Raging Bull. Every boxing movie that came after owes something to Champion.
This one broke me. Paddy Considine wrote, directed, and stars in this devastating little film about a boxer who suffers a brain injury during a fight and has to rebuild his life piece by piece. It’s not about the fight, it’s about what happens after.
Jodie Whittaker plays his wife, and their scenes together are some of the most honest, painful, and beautiful moments I’ve seen in any sports movie. Considine’s performance is just heartbreaking, it's totally lived-in and real. Journeyman is small, quiet, and criminally underseen, but it’s one of the most human boxing films ever made.
No, not the Russell Crowe sword-and-sandals crap. This Gladiator is an early-90s boxing drama starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Marshall, directed by Rowdy Herrington (the guy who made Road House, so you know it’s got a certain sweaty charm).
It’s about underground boxing, friendship, and corruption... all that classic stuff. It’s slick, stylish, and completely of its time, but I love it. Cuba is great, Brian Dennehy plays the sleazy promoter perfectly, the late great Tony Fitzpatrick is featured in it, and the movie has that gritty Chicago energy I’m always a sucker for. It’s pure 90s pulp, but it punches way above its weight.
Here’s one most people missed, and they shouldn’t have. The Hammer stars Adam Carolla (yes, that Adam Carolla) in what might be the best performance of his career. It’s a small, funny, genuinely heartfelt story about a 40-year-old construction worker who gets a second shot at boxing glory.
It’s half sports movie, half midlife-crisis comedy, and it totally works. Carolla brings this self-deprecating, hangdog charm to the role, and the boxing scenes are surprisingly authentic. It’s not flashy, it’s not cynical, it’s just a good, solid, funny little movie with heart. A total hidden gem.
And there you have it. 10 boxing movies that didn’t get the love they deserved, but absolutely deserve a spot in the ring with the big boys.
They may not have the fame of Rocky or the critical clout of Raging Bull, but each one brings something unique: grit, heart, humor, tragedy, and most importantly, passion.
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