Thank you! I was starting to pity these kids who've never seen a film before 1980.
The Set-Up is fabulous, as is Body and Soul. But you forgot about Champion, City of Conquest and The Harder They Fall.
Hard to beat Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight, but Raging Bull comes very close. And among more recent films, I enjoyed Cinderella Man, The Boxer and The Great White Hype (if you can tolerate Damon Wayans as an undefeated knockout artist) very much. Rocky was also fun, even though the sequels were awful (save for Rocky III) but they really aren't too genuine when it comes to the sweet science. Michael Mann's Ali was better than all of them put together. Undisputed, Diggstown, Gladiator (1992), Streets of Gold, Fat City, Girlfight, Fight Night, even Elvis's Kid Galahad all had wonderful boxing moments. I'd include When We Were Kings, too, way up on the list, but it's a documentary and seems to have an unfair advantage on the realism tip.
Ultimately, it comes down to Requiem for a Heavyweight or Raging Bull as the best fictional boxing movie ever.
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