Boxing in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Despite a dodgy reputation throughout the years, boxing was one of the most popular sports in America during the twentieth century, rivaling baseball and horse racing.

The first sporting event ever broadcast live over the radio was a prize fight. When prime time network television schedules were first created in the late 1940s, all four television networks included live boxing programs in their schedule.

Many of the terms and expressions from boxing have found their way into the American lexicon. A number of writers, including Damon Runyon, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Robert E. Howard, Joyce Carol Oates, and Norman Mailer have written extensively about boxing in literal and metaphorical terms. Boxing and boxers have shown up in comic strips (such as Joe Palooka), radio plays, television, and the movies - often structured around the corruption of boxing, and also the glories and hardships of boxing.

[edit] Boxing in the entertainment media

• The Broken Place, a novel involving boxing; Shaara had been an amateur boxer.
• The Power of One, a novel by Bryce Courtenay.
• Fighting Ruben Wolfe, a novel by Markus Zusak.
• Battling Butler (1926 film) Starring Buster Keaton
• The Sailor Steve Costigan series (1929-1934), created by Robert E. Howard for the pulps.
• The Champ (1931 film)
• The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933 film) Starring Max Baer
• Two-Fisted (1935 film) Comedy
• Kid Galahad (1937 film) Starring Edward G. Robinson
• Golden Boy (1937 stageplay) written by Clifford Odets
• Golden Boy (1939 film) Starring William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck
• Gentleman Jim (1942 film) Starring Errol Flynn
• Body and Soul (1947 film) Starring John Garfield
• Champion (1949 film) starring Kirk Douglas
• The Set-Up (1949 film) starring Robert Ryan
• Day of the Fight (1951 short subject) First film directed by Stanley Kubrick
• On the Waterfront (1954 film) Winner of 8 Oscars, starring Marlon Brando and his famous line, "I could've been a contender."
• The Harder They Fall (1956 film) Starring Humphrey Bogart
• Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 film) Starring Paul Newman
• Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956 TV play) Starring Jack Palance, written by Rod Serling
• Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962 film) Starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney
• Kid Galahad (1962 film) Musical starring Elvis Presley
• Golden Boy (1964 musical stageplay)
• The Great White Hope (1970 film) Starring James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander
• Fat City (1972 film) Starring Stacey Keach and Jeff Bridges
• On Boxing, a book from the highly acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oats
• Rocky Oscar-winning movie in 1976 and its sequels, starring Sylvester Stallone (also scriptwriter)
• The Main Event (1979 film) Starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal
• The Champ (1979 film) Starring Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Rick Schroder; remake of 1931 film
• The Prize Fighter (1979 film) Starring Don Knotts and Tim Conway
• Raging Bull (1980 film) Classic boxing movie about Jake LaMotta starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci
• Spike of Bensonhurst (1988 film)
• Tokyo Fist (1995 film)
• The Great White Hype (1996 film) Starring Samuel L Jackson and Jeff Goldblum

• When We Were Kings (1997 film) The story of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and the Rumble in the Jungle
• 24 7: Twenty Four Seven (1997 film) Starring Bob Hoskins
• Don King: Only in America (TV movie) Starring Ving Rhames
• The Hurricane (1999 film) Starring Denzel Washington as middleweight Rubin Carter
• Billy Elliot About a young dancer whose father and brother wanted him to become a boxer, like Ken Buchanan
• Girlfight (2000 film)
• Ali (2001 film) Starring Will Smith
• Champion (2002 film) South Korean film about Duk Koo Kim, a South Korean boxer who died after a bout against Ray Mancini
• Undisputed, (2002)
• Undefeated (2003 TV movie) Starring John Leguizamo
• Million Dollar Baby (2004 film) Multiple Oscar-winner about a female boxer, directed by Clint Eastwood
• Virgin Gloves (2004) First novel about a gay prizefighter, by Alex Hutchinson
• Against the Ropes (2004 film) Starring Meg Ryan as Jackie Kallen, famous female boxing promoter
• Black Cloud Directed by and starring Rick Schroder
• The Calcium Kid (2004 film)
• Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004 film) Documentary directed by Ken Burns
• Cinderella Man (2005 film) Based on the true story of Jim Braddock, starring Russell Crowe.
• Jump In!, a 2007 Disney movie starring Corbin Bleu as a young boxer, jump roper and basketball player
• Teenwolf Too, a 1987 teen comedy where Jason Bateman plays a teenager boxer who turns into a wolf when enraged.
• The Contender 2005 Reality TV series
• The Next Great Champion, short lived television reality series hosted by Oscar De La Hoya.
• Hajime no Ippo Manga/anime about a young featherweight boxer
• Activision Boxing One of the first console games about boxing
• The Punch-Out!! series by Nintendo, including Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! game and Super Punch-Out!!
• Balrog from the Street Fighter 2 franchise series is a fictional boxer based on Mike Tyson.
• Dudley,a fictional professional boxer from England is a selectable character in the Street Fighter 3 video game series. This incarnation of the boxer has a technique and style that differs from Balrog off of Street Fighter 2. Dudley's special moves are believed to be a homage to various popular boxing animes.
• EA Sports Fight Night 2004, Fight Night: Round 2 and Fight Night: Round 3 (formerly Knockout Kings).
• Steve Fox from the Tekken arcade- and video game series is a British fighter who uses traditional boxing as his style.
• In the King of Fighters video- and arcade game series there are two fictional boxers present; a previous pro-boxer known as Heavy D! and the female boxer Vanessa. Neither utilize traditional boxing gloves however.
• Bully Preppies uses the style of Boxing and is a minigame found in Old Bullworth Vale

[edit] Impact of boxing on the English language

Numerous metaphors common to everyday speech derive from the sport of boxing. Some of these include:

Metaphor	Definition
he was rocked by that one	a fighter was hit by a punch with enough force to be dazed
not up to scratch	subpar, not able to do the task at hand (in the old days of boxing, boxers started the round by stepping over a scratch made in the ring, but if a boxer could not do this to keep the round going, he was said to be "not up to scratch")
saved by the bell	rescued from defeat by dint of time running out, an unexpected turn of events, etc. (ironically, this is no longer allowed, as due to rule changes a boxer cannot be saved by the bell in any round, including the last round)
on (or against) the ropes	on the verge of being defeated
throw in the towel/sponge	to quit, give up; traditionally, a boxer's manager or trainer will throw a towel, or in earlier days a sponge, into the ring if he feels that his fighter cannot win and is endangering himself
come out swinging	to throw oneself into an activity or competition; in boxing, to pursue the opponent aggressively (possibly recklessly)
in one's corner	on someone's side, to help or cheer him on
down/out for the count	knocked out, defeated
sucker punch	hitting an opponent who is off his guard, taking advantage of a vulnerability
hitting below the belt/low blow	a grossly unfair attack (in everyday life, usually of a verbal nature)
punch drunk	dazed or incoherent (originally, from being repeatedly struck, can refer to dazes generally)
pull one's punches	to hold back, withhold full force or attack
in the arena	to be participating, engaged
keep your guard up	to remain alert, on the defensive
go toe to toe	to engage an opponent head-on (reference to two boxers in guard facing each other)
taking it on the chin	to absorb punishment (personally or physically); in boxing, a chin refers to the ability to take punishment in the face
backed into a corner	put into a position where there's no possibility of escape without fighting your way out; in boxing, the corners of the ring offer a huge advantage to the boxer who is near the center, as (s)he can escape while the other boxer cannot