While boxing is considered entertaining enough in a real-life setting, the sport has been even more glamorized on the silver screen. Films like Ali, Cinderella Man, Raging Bull and others have highlighted the bruised and bloodied careers of real life boxers, as Rocky (among countless other films) have excited us with fictional accounts of the ring.
Spike Lee and Doug Ellin just had a new boxing TV show killed by HBO, and this left us wondering: what other boxing stories need to be told on the silver screen?
Joe Lewis: World Heavyweight champ from 1937 to 1948, Joe Lewis has had an opera based on his life, but no legitimate flick has been made about the legend. In 2005, Louis was ranked the #1 heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization and was also ranked #1 on The Ring’s list of the best punchers. Imagine it in 3D: a holographic fist from the screen to the face could still hurt!
Sugar Ray Robinson: SRR was known as the best “pound-for-pound” boxer of all time, as he frequently switched weight classes. Not only was he 85-0 as an amateur, but 69 of those victories were knock-outs, with 40 in the first round. Robinson tried to get into the entertainment industry after his boxing career, but spent the rest of his life in poverty. The rags to riches to rags story sounds like Oscar gold if you ask us.
Mike Tyson: While Tyson is no stranger to acting, and has been the subject of a (crazy) documentary, no biopic has captured the tattoo’ed boxer’s controversial career on film. Tyson may be best known for his ear-biting antics, but he was also the youngest boxer to win multiple heavyweight titles at the tender age of 20. Think about it, the theatres could sell gummy ears instead of popcorn to accompany the subject matter.
There are other boxers that come to mind whose stories have not been properly honored in the entertainment industry, including Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
On the next rainy day, we’ll start penning our screenplays, and we suggest you do the same (the Oscars await!). To do some research, HeyKiki offers Boxing Classes, Instructors, and Lessons as well as a system to find a training buddy.
If you’d like to learn another sport or activity other than boxing, we have other instructors and classes in your area on HeyKiki too.
Editor/Writer at NYU Local and Anonym Magazine. Music lover. Infinite Intern.