The easy answer: Since "Rocky" captured the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1976, Hollywood has churned out an average of one boxing movie per year. That's astonishing, especially when the average American sports fan can name only four active boxers right now: Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and the Klitschko brothers, whom nobody can identify individually beyond, "I think one of them dates Hayden Panettiere." The complete roll call since 1976: "Rocky"; "The Greatest"; "Rocky II"; "The Champ"; "The Main Event"; "Penitentiary"; "Raging Bull"; "Body and Soul"; "Penitentiary II"; "Rocky III"; "Tough Enough"; "Rocky IV"; "Teen Wolf II"; "Penitentiary III"; "Rocky V"; "Play It to the Bone"; "Gladiator"; "Diggstown"; "When We Were Kings"; "The Great White Hype"; "The Hurricane"; "The Boxer"; "Rocky Marciano"; "Girlfight"; "Ali"; "Undisputed"; "Million Dollar Baby"; "Against the Ropes"; "Cinderella Man"; "Undisputed II"; "Rocky Balboa"; "Resurrecting the Champ"; "The Hammer"; "Fighting"; "The Fighter."
Best part of that list: Hollywood giving up and calling its last two efforts "Fighting" and "The Fighter." Get ready for "Fight," "Punch" and "Ow" in the next few years.
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An excerpt from Simmons review of The Fighter on ESPN. Can't believe all these boxing movies, I never realized it was that many.![]()