Step into the ring: The best bouts in movie history
Whether it's boxing, wrestling, MMA, karate, or, yes, arm-wrestling, these powerful fight scenes pack an emotional wallop
Film Features Daniel LaRusso
Is there anything in film quite as dramatic as watching two gladiator-quality athletes throw a truly epic beatdown on each other in the ring, especially when the stakes—professional, emotional, even existential—are sky high? A powerfully choreographed and tightly edited screen fight has worked durably through the history of cinema, from 1931’s The Champ right up to the modern-day Creed films.
We’re leaning hard into classic movie confrontations in the ring and beyond here, featuring all-too-mortal combatants (no soaring wuxia warriors, superheroes, or spies on this list). Whether these brawlers are pummeling a competitor with brutal jabs, hooks and uppercuts, leveling opponents with roundhouse kicks or grappling a foe to the mat, they’ve all made us feel their triumphs and their tragedies. Here then, in alphabetical order, are some of the screen’s most brilliant and bruising matches.
43 Comments
All Stallone’s boxing scenes are terrible – the films have merit (the first is a genuinely good movie deserving of its Oscar, and the fourth is just, well, it’s Rocky IV and is the 80s distilled into 90 minutes) but the boxing is laughable. Raging Bull isn’t much better in that regard.
I was really hoping that Creed would bring a bit of realism to the boxing scenes. Any real heavyweight boxer would die in the ring taking the shots Rocky endured in every fight. He doesn’t even put his hands up.Oh, and Rocky wasn’t a draw. It was a split decision, with Apollo winning on 2 of the 3 judges’ cards.
I’ll be honest – I remembered it as a draw.
I would counter that authentic boxing wouldn’t look as good on screen, at least to people who aren’t already boxing fans.It works in the same way a wrestling match does, you get to see lots of moves that look like they’re doing a lot of damage to each other. When in most actual combat sports the reality is you’re spending much of your time trying very much NOT to get hit.
Oh I know. But Rocky’s fight strategy of letting opponents punch themselves out on his head was way over the top. In a real fight, one solid blow to the face might end it. He took like 50 every time out.
This. I feel the same way about running in movies. That’s not how actual fast humans run.
Tom Cruise’s running: Yay or nay?
Haha, not at all. But Pat Porter in the 1998 Steve Prefontaine biopic Without Limits looked like an Olympic caliber 10k runner.
I remember Muhammed Ali being kind of diplomatic about Stallone’s movies… and being quick to point out that they were only movies. And that no boxer in his right mind would do so much weightlifting.
Where’s Southpaw?
Apologies to all actual sports movies about fighting, but THIS is the best bout in movie history.
Yup and nothing comes close to it!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=89GuSVcFkMQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=89GuSVcFkMQ
Fukin…… Butterbean v Knoxville…….
This right here! Best fist fight in movie history.
I don’t see King Arthur vs. the Black Knight. I mean, the Black Knight was going to bite Arthur’s legs off.
My personal favorites are Cinderella Man and Warrior.
Agred re: Warrior, and contrary to the post, the whole emotionality of it comes from the fact that Brendan is NOT the better fighter (not even close. Spoilers: Tommy absolutely buzzsaws through his half of the bracket), but he has something to fight FOR, while his rage-fueled brother is fighting AGAINST everything.
Those are the two I first thought of. I had to watch most of Warrior through my fingers (I don’t do well with bone-crunching violence–my friend and I only went to see it because of the promise of shirtless Tom Hardy, which makes use sound like creeps now that I say it out loud), but it was definitely compelling! The last fight in Cinderella Man fight was hell of stressful.
Came here to see Warrior on this list, did not leave disappointed.
The first Rocky fight is not a draw.
I like the fight in Any Which Way You Can better than Every Which Way But Loose. Eastwood and Smith fighting their way across Jackson WY was too much fun.
Yea they blew up the whole town. The great Will Smith was a more compelling boss fight too.
“I think I nailed him.”
It’s not a sports movie, but I always thought that a surprisingly good fight happened in The Player’s Club. They sold the hell out of that. To be fair, though, I’ve not watched it in years, so it may not hold up.
I have to say, Over the Top is the best movie about arm wrestling that I’ve ever seen. But also the worst.
Also the best out-of-court means of settling a custody dispute.No, not that. I mean the worst.
There’s a totally unauthorized video game adaptation of the film’s climax in Track & Field II on the NES:
Bloodsport has Van Dams best final fight & boss but Lionheart is his best movie overall. The little girl at the end gets me every time.
Fun fact, that little girl was actually a very young Ashley Johnson, known today as part of the Critical Role D&D live play troupe and as Ellie from the Last of Us games. She’s the one member of CR who also has a significant presence in Hollywood (the rest being talented voice actors for various video games and anime productions) and during earlier seasons of CR it was a running joke that her character was largely absent since she often had to miss episodes due to scheduling conflicts with the various movies and shows she starred in.
Bloodsport also has the slo-mo face shake that’s been parodied to great effect ever since.
So Rocky III is one of the worst examples of a third movie in a film franchise, but Rocky’s bout with Clubber is one of the best?
Bloodsport is plenty goofy upon retrospect (and you can tell it was largely made just to give JCVD an excuse to show off his ability to do splits), but man do the fight scenes still hold up to this day, especially the final fight between Frank Dux and Chong Li. The actor who played Chong Li, Bolo Yeung, also had a small part in the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon, and he even showed up in a few subsequent JCVD movies after Bloodsport.
Bloodsport is amazing. It so effortlessly bounces back and forth between enjoyably awful and genuinely awesome until it’s both at once in the final fight. I love that movie so much.
How about the opening scene from Hot Shots: Part Deux?“Gummy bears! Gummy bears! Sprinkles! Sprinkles!”
No love for Diggstown? I have almost no memory of it except that I liked it when it came out. But I still protest its snubbing.
Okay – you’ve got The Quiet Man on here. That’s pretty good. I’ll shut up.
I love a lot about The Quiet Man – and there’s also a lot I don’t like (mainly the way Wayne grabs, slaps around, and then literally drags Maureen O’Hara roughly on the ground for several minutes – even though O’Hara herself loved Wayne IRL and never complained about it). That said, the Thornton vs. Danaher donnybrook is one of my favorite fight scenes in movie history, and with some incredible scenery to boot. You gotta love a knock-down, drag-out fight across the countryside where they stop at the pub for a beer in the middle of it.
Not having They Live on this list means your list is completely worthless.
Best of the Best is framed around an Olympic karate/tae kwon do showdown between the United States and Korea. The team aspect makes it unique to other sports fight scenes. Eric Roberts is topped-billed, so he gets a big match, but the more emotional climax is in the final bout between Tommy (Phillip Rhee) and Dae Han, the opponent who killed his brother in the same tournament some years ago (real-life brother Simon Rhee). The 80s, man.
You’ve got to be kidding. The fight in Million Dollar Baby and it’s aftermath are why it became one of only a couple of movies I’ve ever walked out on. It would have looked more appropriate in a Wrestlemania PPV. The ending was fucking ridiculous. The champ would have lost by disqualification. Having her win and following it with brutal insult after insult to Maggie made it clear that Eastwood was out to assault Maggie and the audience. It was grotesque and sadistic.
C’mon, no Gladiator? Brian Dehenney breaks both hands on the kid from A Few Good Men’s head!