Best Boxing documentary / Film ever?

bigfatjourneyman · Post by **bigfatjourneyman** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:28

What is the best boxing doc or film anyone has seen?

Obviously Raging Bull and Rocky immediately spring to mind but I seem to remember seeing an excellent documentary on 3 young fighters in New York training for the Golden Gloves over there.

Hut*Hut · Post by **Hut*Hut** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:29

Raging Bull is widley considered one of the 10 or 15 greatest films EVER, so it would have to be that.

Loftgroov · Post by **Loftgroov** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:34

Yes, no question.

Otherwise "When we were Kings" I guess.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:42

The first Rocky is the best boxing movie.

Documentary has to be When we were Kings.

Quite odd how this thread was brought up on the day GMTV comfirmed that 2004 will be another year of the sequels in the movies..... Including Rocky 6.

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:48

How about that Naseem Hamed Doc, i thought it was great

Chambers · Post by **Chambers** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:49

When we were Kings

Jacko11 · Post by **Jacko11** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:50

Best Documentry i saw was about the Nobby Nobbs journey men camp,it showed you how they prepare and go to fights,in it Jimmy Vincent took on
Gary Jacobs and broke his jaw does any else remember it?

Chambers · Post by **Chambers** » 09 Jan 2004, 11:56

There was a good one on fairly recently about that Welsh bloke who died in the ring whose name escapes me (Johnny...... ) It doesn't seem write to say it was good, due to the nature of the film, but it was good. He was probably the ultimate professional who put his whole life on hold to make it to the top. Can someone post his name because its annoying me?

Was it Owens? (fair chance with him being a taff)

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 09 Jan 2004, 12:13

The late Johnny Owen, The Merthyr Matchstick - RIP.

Best ever is When We Were Kings, by a country mile.

I used to have a great doc called The Fight - the build up plus fight to Ali/Frazier 1.

It's odd better films on boxing haven't been made, there's so many great stories to tell. Requiem For A Heavyweight is an old classic, On The Waterfront too.

I used to love Somebody Up There Likes Me when I was a kid, but I havn't seen it in years.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 09 Jan 2004, 15:00

MightyWarrior wrote:
I used to love Somebody Up There Likes Me when I was a kid, but I havn't seen it in years.

Its on TCM all the time, its a great film.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Jan 2004, 15:47

I always liked "Requiem to a Heavyweight". Great great movie. The first "Rocky" was also great, let down badly by the increasingly poorer sequels.
There was a thread on this theme recently on the Boxers of the Past forum under the title, "Fighters as Actors" and several posters were raving about "Fat City", a movie I've never seen.
Best documentary: "When we were Kings" was awesome, and I saw a good one recently concerning Cedric Kushner and Hasim Rahman, with Rahman promising to resign with Kushner on his mobile phone while on his way to Don King's office.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Jan 2004, 15:53

Jacko11 wrote:Best Documentry i saw was about the Nobby Nobbs journey men camp,it showed you how they prepare and go to fights,in it Jimmy Vincent took on
Gary Jacobs and broke his jaw does any else remember it?

Yeah, Harry Mullan was raving about it in Boxing News. That was where Nobby uttered his immortal line: "Warm-up for a few minutes, or just stand by the radiator."

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 09 Jan 2004, 15:56

bennie wrote: I saw a good one recently concerning Cedric Kushner and Hasim Rahman, with Rahman promising to resign with Kushner on his mobile phone while on his way to Don King's office.

Yes I saw that one, wasn't it showing on the BBC recently.

Did anyone see that documentary on the BBC years ago (it might have been on QED or Arena) about a bare fist fighter challenging the best in Britain. The guy was geniunelly the world record holder for press ups, but hadn't faught in his life - it was all a hoaks, which fooled the producers untill an update show a week later.

Some aspects where real as he gots some tips from "The Guvorner" but you could see him shitting himself.

The REAL McCoy · Post by **The REAL McCoy** » 09 Jan 2004, 17:28

Favourite documentary- On the Ropes

Favourite films- Raging Bull, Requiem to a Heavyweight & Somebody up there likes me

& you gotta admit, the Rocky films were also good entertainment

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 09 Jan 2004, 17:30

The REAL McCoy wrote:Favourite documentary- On the Ropes

Favourite films- Raging Bull, Requiem to a Heavyweight & Somebody up there likes me

& you gotta admit, the Rocky films were also good entertainment

Looks like Harrison did his own rocky traning for the medina 2 fight 8)

The REAL McCoy · Post by **The REAL McCoy** » 09 Jan 2004, 17:50

REAL_DEAL wrote:
The REAL McCoy wrote:Favourite documentary- On the Ropes

Favourite films- Raging Bull, Requiem to a Heavyweight & Somebody up there likes me

& you gotta admit, the Rocky films were also good entertainment
Looks like Harrison did his own rocky traning for the medina 2 fight 8)

Yeah Real Deal, according to the Scottish press he is supposed to be training up in Ben Nevis again for the Abelyan fight, and every fight afterwards, and that can only be good :)

REAL_DEAL · Post by **REAL_DEAL** » 09 Jan 2004, 17:53

The REAL McCoy wrote:
REAL_DEAL wrote:
The REAL McCoy wrote:Favourite documentary- On the Ropes

Favourite films- Raging Bull, Requiem to a Heavyweight & Somebody up there likes me

& you gotta admit, the Rocky films were also good entertainment
Looks like Harrison did his own rocky traning for the medina 2 fight 8)
Yeah Real Deal, according to the Scottish press he is supposed to be training up in Ben Nevis again for the Abelyan fight, and every fight afterwards, and that can only be good :)

Great, hes been watching Rocky 4 :P :P :P

The REAL McCoy · Post by **The REAL McCoy** » 09 Jan 2004, 18:10

REAL_DEAL wrote:
The REAL McCoy wrote:
REAL_DEAL wrote: Looks like Harrison did his own rocky traning for the medina 2 fight 8)
Yeah Real Deal, according to the Scottish press he is supposed to be training up in Ben Nevis again for the Abelyan fight, and every fight afterwards, and that can only be good :)
Great, hes been watching Rocky 4 :P :P :P

McCoy still sheds a tear when he watches Rocky IV and sees Ivan Drago take a past his primes Apollo Creeds life in the ring

Apollo was only making the comeback for the money, he should have been called APALLING GREED!

It was great to see Rocky wear Apolo's shorts as a tribute to the greedy git, but Adrian, Rocky's wife must have had to toss them into the washing machine beforehand, as they were caked in shit from when Apollo set eyes on Drago!

Costa · Post by **Costa** » 09 Jan 2004, 21:35

I just hope Holyfield doesn't do an Apollo Creed. I just wished I'd got to see Rocky on the big screen just happened to be a bit before my time.

mrbassie · Post by **mrbassie** » 09 Jan 2004, 22:31

did anyone see a thing on sky years ago called ringside theater? They did four docs: one about Joe Louis, one about SRR and the middleweights of his era, one about Ali and one on Tyson. They were great, I wish they'd repeat them since I only have the Ali one and half of the SRR one on tape.

bigfatjourneyman · Post by **bigfatjourneyman** » 13 Jan 2004, 08:28

Has anyone else seen these documentaries Mr Bassie talks about as I would love to get my hands on them?

mrbassie · Post by **mrbassie** » 13 Jan 2004, 10:05

I dug the tape out when I saw your post, they were made in 1992 and the credits say copyright sky broadcasting so presumably they produced them themselves rather than licensing them. I have no idea whether sky have a video range of old programs like the beeb do....

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 19 Jan 2004, 08:36

I brought this topic up from the dead cause I completely forgot what I believe is the best boxing documentary.

....... Champions Forever, truely a class apart any sporting documentary.

TT · Post by TT » 19 Jan 2004, 17:25

Chambers wrote:There was a good one on fairly recently about that Welsh bloke who died in the ring whose name escapes me (Johnny...... ) It doesn't seem write to say it was good, due to the nature of the film, but it was good. He was probably the ultimate professional who put his whole life on hold to make it to the top. Can someone post his name because its annoying me?

Was it Owens? (fair chance with him being a taff)

I saw it, when Johnny's dad Dick Owen, goes to Mexico City to meet Lupe Pintor... A very touching documentary indeed....

RIP Johnny Owen... The Merthyr Matchstick Man

DOG · Post by **DOG** » 19 Jan 2004, 18:13

Well happy and sad answser
Film.."Somebody up there Likes Me".Starring Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano...what a funny, sad, wonderfully acted film...er...by proper actors.YES ...I ,love it...catch it on TCM327 if you haven't seen it..

Documentary....well maybe I am showing my age but I hope someone else saw this documentary on Channel Four many moons ago. I hope so because it has moved me to the core...even now over ten years later it is not far from my mind....

I remember maybe 12- 14 years ago watching a documentary type show on C4 about professional boxing, promotion and the like...The over all feel was of smallish(ish) shows; guys selling tickets to get a$$es on seats...
The man in question primarily(from the fighter point of view) was Bradley Stone, a teenager/v.early twenties...The lad (and he was a lad) was canvassing support around his local East London area to come and see himself fight and represent the area.
It was a jerky doc. maybe 30-60 minutes long...

I forgot about this documentary

2-3 years laters I was reading from several sources about Bradley Stone fighting Ritchie Wenton for the British tiltle.
Bradley died two days later via a clot to the brain....

From that moment on...that has been the most powerful documentary for me about boxing....I have never felt so emotionally involved because I saw this young kid...doing everything he could to make himself the best that he could be...then I saw his name again (some time later) vieing for the British(I think) title and his own dreams...only to see that he paid the highest possible price for those dreams...Was it worth it...For Bradley probably yes....
Such are the heroes we watch, debate and worship...

And for some of you that read these sites we salute you...

And for Bradley, and those before you;... we remember you..

DOG