The 10 best boxing movies of all time

It’s called ‘the sweet science’, an odd nickname for a sport where the goal is to punch your opponent unconscious. But there’s something compelling about boxing that has kept filmmakers, in particular, coming back to it for decades, even as its position in popular culture has waned. Obviously, there’s the gladiatorial aspect – two individuals locked in combat, essentially bare but for their gloves and attire, duking it out in the vaunted squared circle for a ravenous crowd. Within that framework, there is a wealth of human stories to be told: about winners and losers, the has-beens and the shoulda-beens and the never was, underdogs and sure things. And in the great films, you really don’t have to know anything about the sport to get drawn into those stories. These are ten of the absolute best examples.