12 Best Pound-For-Pound Boxers In Sports Movies, Ranked

Boxing movies like Southpawhave long been one of the most popular inspirational sports features because they are more personal and focus on two individuals facing off in the ring. Because of this, boxing has been a staple of sports movies from the beginning of film up to the modern day. All kinds of movie boxers exist in the pop culture ethos, with many even honored at the Academy Awards and others entered into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Boxing movies span various genres, with popular dramas, comedies, and action movies centering on the sport. Many boxing films are biopics, but with the stars of these movies being iterations of real-life boxers, it is a bit hard to compare them to boxers like Rocky Balboa. However, plenty of boxing projects like Southpawfeature fictional boxers, and this is where it becomes a little more subjective to debate who the best pound-for-pound boxer is among those explicitly created for the big screen.

12 Diana Guzman

Girlfight

Michelle Rodriguez's role as Diana Guzman in 2000's Girlfight is what launched her into stardom, and she defined Guzman as one of the best movie boxers along the way. The film chronicles the start of her boxing career, with Guzman finding success by easily winning amateur fights in the female league. However, Guzman also ends up defeating two men. One of these fights is even against her boyfriend, showing her skill as well as her mental fortitude.

If Girlfight showed more of Guzman's career, it's possible she could be an even better boxer in movies, but all the film showed was the amateur fights and the male vs. female battles. Despite this, beating men in this brutal sport means that Diana deserves all the respect in the world when it comes to her talent and determination as a pound-for-pound boxer.

11 Butch Coolidge

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction may not be a boxing movie, but it does feature one of cinema's best fictional boxers. Bruce Willis' Butch Coolidge was a hotshot boxer from Los Angeles in his youth, winning most of his fights and garnering a pretty successful career. However, Coolidge retired in his late 30s, with him throwing his last fight, which got him a lot of attention from the mob. This led to the story in Pulp Fiction, where Marsellus Wallace offers to pay off Butch to throw an upcoming fight so he can win a bet.

Split image of Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby and Creed in Creed

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This led to Butch having a conflict of faith and deciding not to throw the fight, believing it is more important to win than to take another payoff from the mob. However, Butch ends up not only winning the fight against Wallace's orders but actually killing his opponent with a hard punch. The fact he killed a man with his gloved fists showed that he was easily one of the strongest pound-for-pound boxers in movies. It's possible that Coolidge could have been even more successful if it hadn't been for his underhanded activities.

10 "Honey" Roy Palmer

Diggstown

Louis Gossett Jr.'s Honey "Ray" Palmer is a retired professional boxer in 1992's boxing comedy Diggstown. However, his post-retirement career is what makes him so special. Throughout the film, the 48-year-old boxer defeats Diggstown's 10 best fighters in a single day. Ten fights in a single day is an incredible feat for any boxer, and considering that Palmer won them all, it makes the fighter even more impressive.

Palmer beat four of the first seven fighters in fair fights.

It should be noted that not all the fights were fair. One person was bribed to take a dive, and another was given a laxative before the fight. Another refused to fight out of cowardice. However, Palmer beat four of the first seven fighters in fair fights. The next kicked Palmer in the groin for a DQ, but then Palmer knocked him out anyway. The ninth fight was the most impressive since it was against a former pro, and Palmer won despite beating exhaustion. Beating even five people in one day earns praise.

9 George "The Iceman" Chambers

Undisputed

Ving Rhames plays George "The Iceman" Chambers, a heavyweight boxing champion who ends up in prison in 2002's Undisputed following rape charges. Although Chambers ends up losing a prison fight to Monroe "Undisputed" Hutchen (Wesley Snipes), the boxer's professional record is an impressive 46-0-1, with his fight against Hutchen being part of a betting syndicate where there are very few rules in place. Hutchen was also in prison for beating a man to death.

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In the fight shown in the movie, Chambers knocks down Hutchen twice to start the fight, but Hutchen gets the third knockdown - the first time that Chambers was ever knocked down in a boxing match. After getting out of prison, Chambers becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, further cementing his place as one of the best movie boxers of all time. However, his lack of morals holds him down, as he lies and claims his knockout to Hutchen never happened.

8 Kelly Robinson

I Spy

I Spy is a buddy spy movie that is passed off more as a comedy and is based on the classic 1960s television series of the same name. In the film, Owen Wilson plays Special Agent Alex Scott, who is seeking to go undercover, and he uses middleweight world boxing champion Kelly Robinson as his cover. Eddie Murphy plays Kelly Robinson, and his skills are shown off despite the film's comedic tone. Robinson is not even knocked down for the first time until near the end of I Spy, but it is only because of a contact lens spy gadget turning on.

Kelly Robinson ends I Spy with a record of 58-0, which is incredibly impressive for any boxer.

While his boxing matches are just used as a side story to the main spy plot, which Robinson comedically becomes involved in, he is shown to be one of the greatest fighters in the world during the film's runtime. What is most impressive is that Eddie Murphy pulled this off despite having no boxing training outside of working on it for his movie roles. No stunt doubles were used for Murphy's fight scenes.

7 Charley Davis

Body And Soul

Body and Soul

Drama

Release Date: September 1, 2000
Runtime: 95 minutes
Director: Sam Henry Kass

Cast

Michael Chiklis
Tiny O'Toole
Ray Mancini
Charlie Davis
Jennifer Beals
Gina
Rod Steiger
Johnny Ticotin

Charley Davis is a boxer from 1947's Body and Soul and remains one of the best fictional pound-for-pound fighters in this cinema classic. Throughout the film noir sports drama, Davis becomes a massive success, quickly rising to the rank of one of boxing's biggest names. Despite being blacklisted for a title shot because of his race, he kept fighting and finally got the chance to prove himself in the ring. Charley Davis defended his title for years, showing he had what it took to remain on top.

However, the most interesting part is that he manages to win a fight he was meant to throw due to the dealings of his shady manager (Lloyd Gough), showing that he has the character that other fighters on this list don't. It was a huge moment in the movie, with the supposed better fighter unable to back up his words with his fists. It also helps that John Garfield was a boxer in his younger days, so he brings a lot of skill and knowledge to his performance as the world-class boxer in this film.

6 Maggie Fitzgerald

Million Dollar Baby

Hilary Swank's Maggie Fitzgerald from 2004's Million Dollar Baby proves herself to be the best female boxer in cinematic history. She was a no-nonsense fighter who refused to take no for an answer, especially when it came to convincing Frankie Funn (Clint Eastwood) to train her, despite him not having faith in her as a female boxer who is starting her training later in life. Fitzgerald moves up through the boxing ranks and garners an impressive winning streak, known for quickly knocking out her opponents.

It seemed like the sky was the limit for Maggie until that tragic fight, and in her short career, she was as powerful as any male boxer in the movie world.

However, Million Dollar Baby is a tragedy, as just when Maggie gets a chance for a fight against the WBA women's welterweight champion for a $1 million purse, her opponent delivers a cheap sucker punch, and Maggie falls and cracks her head on the stool in the corner, instantly paralyzing herself. It seemed like the sky was the limit for Maggie until that tragic fight, and in her short career, she was as powerful as any male boxer in the movie world.

5 Billy "The Great" Hope

Southpaw

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope in 2015's Southpaw. Hope is an undisputed light heavyweight champion who dispatches several tough fighters throughout the film, although he barely scrapes by some of the time. At the start of the film, Billy Hope has a record of 42-0, with him beating some of the toughest opponents in the game. What makes the film so interesting is that Billy Hope is not based on a real-life boxer but is instead based on rapper Eminem, with the boxing fights a metaphor for his rap battles.

The movie goes a long way to show Billy as a father who needs to prove he can raise his daughter while also proving that he has what it takes to win as a boxer. The fact that the story takes the time to show Billy hitting rock bottom and losing everything, only to fight his way back to the top and reclaim his daughter and the trust of those around them, all while being a master in the ring, shows that he is one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in movies regardless of the distractions.

4 Ivan Drago

Rocky IV

Ivan Drago is the most fearsome villain in the Rocky franchise. He proved his might when he fought and hit so hard that he killed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV in what was supposed to be an exhibition fight. Although his loss to Rocky was only his second official fight, Ivan Drago was an Olympic gold medalist and had an amateur record of 100-0 before he started fighting professionally. Drago also packs a powerful punch at an average of 1850 PSI.

Played by Dolph Lundgren, Drago also looks the part in the movie. Russia banished him from the country after he lost his fight to Rocky, but he returned later with his son Viktor, who he had trained to carry on the family name in boxing. This means that Ivan Drago only had a record of 1-1, with his only win in an exhibition fight, before his forced retirement and banishment following Apollo Creed's death and the loss to Balboa. Regardless, Ivan proved to be one of the best of all time in those two fights.

3 James "The Grim Reaper" Roper

The Great White Hype

The Great White Hype's James "The Grim Reaper" Roper (Damon Wayans) is the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, which combined with his undefeated record makes him one of the best boxers of all time. The film is mostly a comedy, with Samuel Jackson starring as the manipulative promoter and the entire movie spoofing the hype going into the real-life 1982 boxing match between Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney (the latter's nickname was "The Great White Hope").

There is no question that The Grim Reaper, in his prime, would win the film's fights, with an out-of-shape Roper still easily defeating his white opponent (a man brought out of retirement who didn't want to fight at all anymore). Although The Great White Hype features many great boxers, James "The Grim Reaper" Roper is the best. Of course, one thing holding him down is the attack at the movie's end, with Shabazz (Michael Jace) knocking him out in an unsanctioned fistfight.

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