Boxing, without a doubt, has produced more really good movies than any other sport! I like boxing AND I like movies. So here I was watching "Someone Up There Likes Me," for the third or fourth time and thinking. I was thinking about all the good boxing movies. "Raging Bull" about Jake Lamotta, a lifelong friend of Rocky Graziano, about whom the Oscar winning "Someone Up There Likes Me," was made. All the "Rocky" movies about a mythical fighter they made a statue of in Philly. Yeah, a statue! He's a hero to people there and he didn't even exist. Although some think he was based on Rocky Graziano, Marciano or Jake Lamotta or maybe even Rocky Basilio. I think if someone wanted to make a boxing movie about another great white hope, Italian boxer, Basilio would be the guy. He BEAT Sugar Ray Robinson! In my mind if you beat Sugar Ray, you could have a movie made about you. But he did other stuff too. Watch. Just watch. It won't be long if it hasn't happened already. It's like trying to think of the next comic superhero they'll make a movie about. You know it's coming, just not when.
Walk into a pub and if it's any kind of pub you should be able to get a great conversation started by asking what the best boxing movies of all time are. Rockies, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, Cinderella Man, Southpaw, Balboa, The Boxer, The Champ, Someone Up There Likes Me, Diggstown, Ali, The Greatest, The Harder They Fall, When We Were Kings, The Fighter, I'd throw in Snatch even though it totally doesn't belong... Do you notice anything about this list? Something GLARING about it? I hate to sprinkle gasoline on an already raging inferno but, this list of moveies is sadly lacking in black boxing heroes. Muhammed Ali, being the exception, there were so many interesting black boxers out there whose stories were just as compelling as the white boxers forever enshrined as heroes by Hollywood by these movies.
* I didn't include Tyson although I DO think it was a great movie. But it did more to diminish a fighter than idoloze him so I kept it off the list. And Mike Tyson has not been a very heroic guy so I can understand his life story not being made into a movie yet. After he's dead and can't beat shit outta the writers, it'll probably be made into a tabloidy sort of movie. But not yet. He's still adding time to it. Also, it was a documentary. I didn't include "Pound for Pound" either but it's just as fun to watch as most of these.
It could be said that a movie about Mike Tyson should be made. His story would be WILDLY entertaining! Where is THAT movie? I could be wrong but I haven't seen one. Even if they need to stretch the truth a little. These are the movies I'm talking about. Hollywood seems to have concentrated on white boxers.
But Tyson is not even the most unbelievable omission the dipshits in Hollywood, and in movie making countries all over the world, have totally neglected at their own peril. What about Sugar Ray Robinson? Come ON! If you talk to boxers and boxing experts he is practically the unanimous choice for best boxer ever. He is called "Pound for Pound" the best ever but since his fought in several classes during his career, THAT distinction isn't quite as necessary. It is a distinction that was invented for him and best describes him, (appologies to Roy Jones, Floyd Mayweather and Pac Man, and such).
If you knew more about him, you'd be right there with me I'm sure wondering why this guy's life story hasn't been made into a movie. If any REAL reason exists, it might be that his story is one of few in the world that just might be too Hollywood even for Hollywood! The guy could, I am almost positive, have had an even more impressive record if he were more like Tyson or George Foreman in his younger days and went into every fight trying to KILL the opponent. Well, he didn't. Unfortunately the night before his fight against Jimmy Doyle, he had a dream that he knocked him out and he was going to die. He actually didn't want to fight. He told everyone he wasn't going to fight that night. But, because of the MONEY everyone would have lost if the fight was cancelled, Ray fought. He DID knock Doyle out and he DID kill him.
Is that Hollywood enough for you?
If not, here's some more, because it doesn't end there! It goes on and on! This guy had one of the longest careers a fighter can possibly hope for! There are several fighters he fought epic series of fights with. Jake Lamotta said, "I fought Sugar Ray Robinson so many times, it's a wonder I don't have diabedes!" Lamotta fought him and BEAT him in Robinson's 41st fight. In 128 fights, including two draws, that was his only loss until Randy Turpin of England beat him for the second time and instantly became the toast of England. Lamotta fought him to a loss 5 other times. This is Jake Lamotta, the Raging Bull we're talking about here. Movie seems to have excluded Sugar Ray for some reason... 127 fights with only 1 loss? Never be duplicated. Tell you why...
In the beginning of his career, Sugar Ray Robinson was just a 19-year-old "Ray Robinson" beating a kid named Valentine for the 1939 Golden Gloves featherweight division championship. For some reason Youtube had good footage of this fight. Take advantage of that fact, I implore you! Not sure where the footage went for the ensuing 6 years but in 46 he fought a guy named Riccio and won with a 4th round TKO. The 3 weeks later fought Cliff Beckett and won. Then SIX DAYS LATER fought Sammy Angott. This is a former lightweight champ! They went 10 rounds but Ray got the unanimous decision. Then STILL in the same year meets Tommy Bell and beats him to become the welterweight champ. That's 4 fights in just over a month. THIS is another BIG reason why this STUD was far superior to the pussy fighters of nowadays who need months to fully recover from a bout and then months more to train for the next fight. 6 days! That makes everything he did at least a little bit more impressive!
1947 isn't so clear, oddly. There is some Bigfoot/Zapruder film of the bout with Georgie Abrams and some SWEEEEET 6-punch combinations and silky moves the boxing world didn't see until many years later. He was obviously toying with his opponent. But I saw a vid in which Robinson said that after the Jimmy Doyle fight, he just couldn't hit anyone hard any more. He became a different fighter. Finesse, defence, scoring points and not knocking the guy out. Many believe this detracted from what could have been an even greater career! Who's to say? If he continued on taking chances on the knockout, he could have been Buster Douglassed. And then he never would have had the most amazing record in boxing ever: his 91 fight unbeaten streak. Or his 127 fights with only one loss. Of course if you are in a half decent pub, you can debate these things.
Just gonna list some of his stats here now and let you mull them over. In 200 bouts. Well let's not just shrug that off. 2oo bouts! ONE hundred is a lot! 200 is unheard of! But in all that time he wss knocked out guess how many times? 1. Joey Maxim. For that alone I'm sure Joey Maxim could have a movie made about him! He has the third most wins of all time. 175. Archie Moore has more with 183 and Willie Pep has more with a 229-11-1 record. I suppose if you were to make a film of the statistical boxing king, Willie Pep would be the man. Get this: he fought Sugar Ray Robinson! Under a pseudonym and LOST. If that's not enough to make a Hollywood movie, he survived a plane crash in which the co-pilot and two passengers died. He recovered and went on to an amazing career. But in the featherweight class. Had 6 wives, all which he said were "good housekeepers." Because they went on to keep the house. 0-6 outside the ring, his record inside was much better and since he's yet another Italian, white dude with a great and colourful boxing career, you wonder how long it will be before it is immortalized in film.
The stats in Ray's career that are probaly most impressive are the multiple times he has won championships. Now this, again, will probably not be repeated because in his time everybody KNEW who the two best fighters were and they wanted them to fight regardless of if they had fought before. This is one of the MANY things Don King fucked up. Ray's career is stained with losses to dudes who he almost always gets a rematch with, and almost always in a hurry, and he beats them. This, while good for his career, proved to be bad for boxing betters and promotors. Enter Don King who won't put the top two guys up against each other unless it's a bazillion dollar fight that rivals the Super Bowl in viewership.
Anyway, I said I'd shy away from that sort of negative.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, "Why the actual SHAZBATT hasn't there been a Hollywood movie, corny as we know it is gonna be, written about the life of the best boxer EVER?"
But here's the thing: They're doing it! Apparently they have a movie coming out in the future about Sugar Ray. I sure can't wait for that! I hope it's as good as some or all of these titles we've listed here. And maybe in 2020 if you walk into a bar and ask what the best boxing movie ever was, maybe this one will be mentioned.
I sure hope it's that good.
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