Boxing is a devoted sport about dignity and respect for oneself for all its gruesome bloodletting, loud trash talk, and open egotism. In the 2015 creed of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, it is a question of entering the ring as one human being, leaving it as another greater human being. So, Boxing is not about combating an opponent. It is only in the way: It’s you versus you.
The best 20 films listed below encompass the ideology of Boxing to explain one’s life and demonstrate one’s value while denying people’s disadvantages. However, we just wanted to include films that focused on boxing matches; Classic movies such as Rocky, Creed, Hurricane, The Boxer, and many more. In this respect, we’ve chosen 20 of the finest boxing movies of all time that you must see.
Which is the best boxing movie of all time streaming on Amazon Prime Video?
The Sports/Drama 2010 movie The Fighter is the best boxing movie that streams on Amazon Prime with 91% Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
Is there any good boxing movies available on Netflix?
Rocky (1976) is the best movie about boxing on Netflix with 8.1 IMDB score.
So, let’s round up to such 20 Best Boxing Movies of All Time!
20. Bleed for This
Director: | Ben Younger |
Cast: | Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart |
Released Year: | 2016 |
Distributed By: | Sony Pictures Releasing International |
Genre: | Action |
IMDB Rating: | 6.8 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 70% |
Currently Available on: | Netflix |
Bleed for This is the film written and filmed by the former boxer Vinny Pazienza in 2016. This is an American biographical sports film. Roger Mayweather is boxed for the World Light WBC title in November 1988 by Vinny Pazienza. He comes late, as he rides a stationary bicycle to achieve his weight restriction. The ultimate weight of Vinny is 140 pounds, qualifying him even for the battle. Vinny spends the night in a casino instead of resting in battle. He loses Mayweather the next day. At one point during the fight, Vinny is hit after the bell. His boxing manager Lou Duva causes a scene by going after Mayweather but is punched as a result. Due to its engaging storyline, it is one of the best boxing movies.
19. China Heavyweight
Director: | Yung Chang |
Cast: | Qi Moxiang, He Zongli |
Released Year: | 2012 |
Distributed By: | EyeSteelFilms |
Genre: | Documentary/Sports |
IMDB Rating: | 6.2 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 82% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
The 2012 Chinese-Canadian documentary film Yung Chang’s China Heavyweight is published by EyeSteelFilm. In 1959 Mao Zedong prohibited boxing sport in China as “too harsh and western.” Boxing began in schools, and the prohibition was abolished in 1987. This movie deals with Qi Moxiang, a boxing instructor who trains for prospective sport and Olympic career alongside Zhao Zhong, boxing program manager in rural China. Overall, it is one of the most immeasurable boxing movies ever made.
18. Chuck
Director: | Philippe Falardeau |
Cast: | Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss |
Released Year: | 2017 |
Distributed By: | IFC Films |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 6.5 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 81% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Chuck is an American sports biographical movie directed by Philippe Falardeau (The Bleeder in the UK and Ireland 2016). It chronicles Chuck Wepner, a heavyweight boxer, and his 1975 championship struggles with Muhammad Ali, the heavily-weight champion who inspired the character and script of Sylvester Stallone for Rocky in 1976. At the 2016 Venice Film Festival on 2 September 2016, Chuck was awarded its global premiere. That’s why it is one of the best boxing movies of all time.
17. The Hurricane
Director: | Norman Jewison |
Cast: | Denzel Washington, John Hannah |
Released Year: | 1999 |
Distributed By: | Universal Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.6 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 83% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Hurricane was directed and produced by Norman Jewison in 1999 as a biographical sports drama in America. This movie shows Carter’s arrests, his jail life, and how the love and compassion of a Brooklyn girl called Lesra Martin and his Canadian host family rescued him. The movie garnered great feedback and gained multiple prizes for its performance, including a Golden Globus award for Best Actor. Washington has also been nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award.
16. Killer’s Kiss
Director: | Stanley Kubrick |
Cast: | Frank Silvera, Jamie Smith |
Released Year: | 1995 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Action/Crime |
IMDB Rating: | 6.6 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 82% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
In 1955, Stanley Kubrick’s US-based action crime noir was Killer’s Kiss. The film focuses on Davey Gordon and his connection with a neighbor, taxi dancer Gloria Price (Irena Kane), and aggressive employer Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera) toward the conclusion of his career. Kubrick’s second feature film, the first of which is his debut, Fear, and Desire, in 1953, was also very interesting. Jamie Smith, Irene Kane, and Frank Silvera are the star cast of the picture, making it even more fascinating.
15. Cinderella Man
Director: | Ron Howard |
Cast: | Russell Crowe |
Released Year: | 2005 |
Distributed By: | Universal Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 8.0 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 80% |
Currently Available on: | Hulu, Amazon Prime Videos |
Lately, Ron Howard’s been having difficulty as his most recent film, Inferno, is crashing and burning at the domestic box office. Similar to the Angels & Demons in 2009, the Cindrella Man has not truly had commercial success. Yet that doesn’t imply it’s not a good movie because a picture doesn’t make headlines at the box office. Cinderella Man raises globally only $108 while working on a far greater $88 million budget. But overall, it is one of the most reliable Boxing movies of all time.
14. Million Dollar Baby
Director: | Clint Eastwood |
Cast: | Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank |
Released Year: | 2004 |
Distributed By: | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 8.1 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 90% |
Currently Available on: | Netflix |
Clint Eastwood is one of the directors whose work is so wide that his career cannot be limited to one grand masterpiece. Still, the ultimate sinewy guy was at the top of his game when he undertook and co-starred in Million Dollar Baby, a film that won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. For his act as an amateur boxer who sits under the wing of Eastwood, Hillary Swank won the Oscar for Best Actress. Every boxing film deals with how they struggle to live their lives, whether to achieve financial independence or combat inner devils.
13. Ali
Director: | Michael Mann |
Cast: | Will Smith, Jamie Fox |
Released Year: | 2001 |
Distributed By: | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 6.8 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 68% |
Currently Available on: | Hulu, Amazon Prime Videos |
The Michael Mann/Will Smith collaboration is another movie that received the highest ratings from critics and yet could not be impressed by the box office. It is built upon the life of the sport’s best-ever champion Muhammad Ali. For his role as the former fighter Cassius Clay, Mr. Will Smith has been nominated for Oscars, and Director Mann addresses not just the man but the 1964-1974 era. Clay’s discovery and advocacy of Islam, his contentious protest to the Vietnam War, and his delicate interactions with characters like Malcolm X are also included in the movie.
12. The Fighter
Director: | David O. Russell |
Cast: | Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale |
Released Year: | 2010 |
Distributed By: | Paramount Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.8 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 91% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Based on the actual tale of the two professional boxers in the late 1980s, the Fighter was starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. For Christian Bale play as Eklund, who was once a promising start, he received the Oscar for the best supporting agent. After ten rounds, he finally finds himself in the throes of a crack addiction with Sugar Ray Leonard. He was having gone the distance. When the movie begins, he trains his brother, Micky. At the same time, family dramas and financial problems do put pressure on the connection between the brothers without mentioning the judgment-damaging effects of crack cocaine.
11. Body And Soul
Director: | Robert Rossen |
Cast: | John Garfield, Lilli Palmer |
Released Year: | 1999 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.6 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 92% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Following the end of World War II, professional Boxing was marked by criminal influences. The mafia intervention is never understood in the outcome of the contests, but Boxing’s shade paired with its impenitent of violence lends a far shadowier edge than most other sport. This perceptive gloom turned Boxing into the perfect setting for noir films from the 1940s and 50s. Body & Soul, a boxer whose struggles for success are undercut by the avarice of mighty men, is one of the greatest of such movies.
10. Hard Times
Director: | Walter Hill |
Cast: | Charles Bronson, James Coburn |
Released Year: | 1975 |
Distributed By: | Columbia Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.3 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 92% |
Currently Available on: | Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos |
People don’t come much harder in real life than boxers. These are athletes who depend on how they can handle and get punches on their faces. In the past, before the introduction of concussion-inducing gloves, the sport became even more bloodthirsty. Naked Boxing was America’s big back weeks, and no movie depicts the dour mood of the sport as a hard time of Walter Hill, starring Charles Bronson, with a knack for a hand-to-hand fighting unnamed guy with few words. There’s never been, nor will there suitable ever be, a man as inedible as Charles Bronson in the annals of Hollywood history.
9. Requiem for a Heavyweight
Director: | Ralph Nelson |
Cast: | Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason |
Released Year: | 1962 |
Distributed By: | Columbia Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.8 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 92% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
1956’s Requiem for a Heavyweight was Rod Serling’s breakthrough success as a writer. Later he created The Twilight Zone, one of the most renowned TV programs ever. In Requiem, however, there is neither science fiction nor supernatural components. This is the uncomplicated narrative and its buddy of a washed-up old boxer and manager. The boxer in the original television version was Jack Palance, while the manager was Keenan Wynn. The Playhouse 90 television broadcast was adapted for the BBC, starring a Young Sean Connery, but this version is tragically lost to time.
8. When We Were Kings
Director: | Leon Gast |
Cast: | Muhammad Ali, George Foreman |
Released Year: | 1996 |
Distributed By: | Gramercy Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Documentary |
IMDB Rating: | 8.0 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 98% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
The struggle in “The Rumble in the Jungle” took place in October 1974. The event was declared a century sporting event, and a three-day festival of music, “Zaire 74,” preceded it. After the exercise, however, Foreman was wounded, the fight was pushed back for one month, while the concert was a famous event by itself on originally set dates. There are two incredible documentaries on the subject: When We Were Kings, which chronicles the entire event and climactic battle, and Soul Power, which focuses mainly on the Zaire 74 music festival.
7. The Boxer
Director: | Jim Sheridan |
Cast: | Daniel Day-Lewis |
Released Year: | 1997 |
Distributed By: | Universal Pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.0 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 80% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
It’s no secret that Daniel Day-Lewis has a golden touch. Practically all his performance has been widely praised, and as an enormous methodologist, he plays every character throughout his whole life. He is well appreciated. To that sense, it must not be surprising that the guy has under his belt three Oscars for Best Actor. Although he missed a large golden trophy for The Boxer in 1997, at least for his cinematic work directed by Jim Sheridan, he was acknowledged by a nomination for the Golden Globe. In this movie, Danny Flynn is a warrior and a crook who seeks to revolutionize his life and find love with Emily Watson after being released in jail; it is one of the most intimate and delicate performances of his life. That makes it one of the greatest boxing movies of all time.
6. The Great White Hope
Director: | Martin Ritt |
Cast: | James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander |
Released Year: | 1970 |
Distributed By: | 20th Century Fox |
Genre: | Romance/Drama/Action |
IMDB Rating: | 6.9 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 43% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
In 1970 film, with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander as interracial couples, was an adaptation of The Great White Hope, the Tony Award-winning production of the Broadway, based on the actual life of Jack Johnson, one of the sport’s forever greatest figures. No wonder American history is full of race, hate, and biases and is defined by them. In 1908, Johnson was made the first black Heavyweight World Champion shout for a good white hope’ as a black man who took the championship. Oh, and Johnson, too, was contentious about a white woman who had been viewed as an attack on the white supremacy of the moment. That’s why we put this movie on number six in our list of best boxing movies of all time.
5. Champion
Director: | Mark Robson |
Cast: | Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell |
Released Year: | 1949 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Noir/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.4 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 93% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
They say that it is alone at the top. No picture illustrates the cruelty of an egomaniac narcissist like the 1949 Champion, Kirk Douglas, starring as a boxer, who cares not how many lives he’s going to ruin to become the greatest. The battle ends with the boxer and his opponent, even in boxing films with coaches, mentors, and romantic interests. Films like The Champ and Rocky (more about them!) are all about battling to establish their authenticity and integrity. On the other side, Champion is about a large hump who lacks self-respect humility. A boxer has his triumph, but his downfall and Champion is an unflinching picture black on the dangers of egotism and greed. So, it is one of the best boxing movies of all time.
4. The Champ
Director: | Franco Zeffirelli |
Cast: | Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway |
Released Year: | 1979 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 6.9 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 36% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Franco Zeffirelli is well known for his work on adaptations of Shakespeare, such as The Taming of the Shrew of 1967, Romeo & Juliet of 1969, and Hamlet of 1990. This ability for the bombastic melodrama was very helpful when the 1979 rework of the 1931 classic. While the original and the remake received a middle answer from the critics of their day, both films powerfully resonated with the public because of their intimate and personal tales. In this story, a retired boxer (Wallace Beery, Jon Voight) comes back in both films to look after his kid (Jackie Cooper, Rick Schroder) during his late career. Their existence is hard on the road, but the relationship between their dad and kid is amazing, and, as its son calls him, it is up to “Champ.”
3. Raging Bull
Director: | Martin Scorsese |
Cast: | Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriatry |
Released Year: | 1980 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 8.2 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 93% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Choose a favorite Martin’s Scorsese film is a carefully unable assignment; among so many everlasting classics, we were given a taxi driver, a median street, Goodfellas, and after-hours. But the 1980s Raging Bull, a violent look at the self-destructive lives and times of Jake “The Bronx Bull” LaMotta, one of the most famous boxers ever to enter the ring, has been one of the films that routinely rates at or near his catalog top. Scorsese is not a boxing enthusiast or sports buff.
2. Creed
Director: | Ryan Coogler |
Cast: | Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone |
Released Year: | 2015 |
Distributed By: | Warner Bros. pictures |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 7.6 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 95% |
Currently Available on: | Amazon Prime Videos |
Legends never die. No one needs a list of boxing cinemas to realize that Rocky is one of the greatest successes ever, but the lasting legacy of this film is nothing short of amazing. Although the sixth feature seemed to have finished the entire series, Sylvester Stallone retired to the next generation, the creed of 2015, by taking his famous character out of retirement. The tried-and-true Rocky of 1976, Director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther), gives a distinctive personality to Adonis Johnson’s scene (Michael B. Jordan).
1. Rocky
Director: | John G. Avildsen |
Cast: | Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire |
Released Year: | 1976 |
Distributed By: | United Artists |
Genre: | Sports/Drama |
IMDB Rating: | 8.1 |
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: | 92% |
Currently Available on: | Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos |
Rocky Balboa is a person distinguished by his talent-humility combo. He’s a basic, kind man who is ineffectual as the muscle for the boss of a low-income mafia at his work. The world lets him round when the chance of a lifetime comes to his lap, virtually out of nowhere: the battle against Apollo Believed, the world’s high-weight champion, for a shot at the crown. This chronic loser gets the opportunity to prove for the first time that he’s not so useless as everyone believes. Like all the better boxing movies, Rocky is not a man who fights against expectation to make him a better man. To that end, Rocky makes tremendous use of its setting of 1970s Philly, which emerges as a character in its own right. Overall, It is one of the most immeasurable Boxing movies of all time.
Conclusion!
These all above mentioned are the finest boxing films ever seen! We have classics such as Rocky and Raging Bull in the same location. Hungry newcomers such as Creed and Million Dollar Baby are on the other hand. And yeah, in this corner, we travel internationally like China’s Heavyweight. So, have your popcorn and pick any of them as they are all the best Boxing Movies of all Time.