In the background, five fans lean on the ropes looking into the ring. The referee is to the left; like the fans, he hardly moves as two fighters swing roundhouse blows at each other. Mike Leonard, in white trunks, is the aggressor; in black, Jack Cushing stands near the edge of the ring, warily pawing the air as Leonard comes at him. A couple of punches land, but the fighters maintain their upright postures.
Have you ever been in a fight? Even thrown a punch? Because Andrew never has. His mom raised him as a pacifist, and she would like to keep it that way. But deep down, Andrew has a question: how much can he know about himself if he’s never been punched in the face? More importantly: how much can he know about his mom, the woman that has sacrificed so much for him, if he’s never fought for anything?
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter - A feature documentary on the legendary black fighter who overcame his life sentence as a triple racist murderer, freed others wrongly convicted, and put his cause on the front burner. When he was given a medical death sentence that he couldn't escape, he told us his story of how he did it and why we are on a last road trip with him to his spiritual home in KKK country-rural Georgia.
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
In 2003, Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh became the first World Champion of Chessboxing. This brain-busting combination of alternating rounds of chess and boxing was in fact an art performance calling for more balance in a world of extremes, and the audience reaction was so electric that it inspired Rubingh to push it as a real sport. Rubingh’s methodical ability to achieve balance in the ring is put to the test outside of it when impulsive British TV Producer Tim Woolgar takes up the sport and his opposing vision for success creates a rift between them, endangering chessboxing’s future.
Unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali's personal archive of "audio journals" as well as interviews and testimonials from his inner circle of family and friends are used to tell the legend's life story.
Diego Corrales vs. José Luis Castillo was a boxing match in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on May 7, 2005. Corrales won the fight in the tenth round after himself being knocked down twice in the round.
Félix Trinidad vs. Oscar De La Hoya, billed as The Fight of the Millennium, was a boxing match held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Las Vegas Strip on September 18, 1999, to unify the WBC and IBF's world Welterweight championships.
For the past two months, we dedicated out lives to documenting the life of Sam. Every human on a day to day basis encounters a "Sam", a peculiar somewhat unpredictable seemingly valueless person, and what you would probably refer to as "douchebag" or "arrogant prick". We found ourselves unknowingly siding with society until we took the time to really observe and realize the childhood trauma and drug abuse that contributed to creating this flawed but valuable human being.
The ornate pavilions of cinematographs, boxing booths and menageries at Hull Fair.
Documentary film about Tony Halme, masculinity and populism. The film follows how Tony Halme created a mythical, highly masculine freestyle wrestling character, The Viking, who gained fame both in the ring and in the public eye and eventually became captivated by it. With his brash speeches, Halme fired the starting shot for the rise of the Finns Party. The voice of a forgotten section of the population, a protest against the ruling elite, were the building blocks of Halme's popularity. Halme's great popularity has served as a good example of a populist figure, admired within the deep ranks of the nation, who comes from outside the political elite and changes the direction of politics. Also, despite - or perhaps because of - his openly racist statements, he was part of changing the political climate in Finland to a more acrimonious one.
In Isla Trinitaria, one of Ecuadors' most conflictive slums, two teenagers struggle to get ahead under the guidance of their mentor, a former boxer who seeks to redeem himself towards life. Siguiente Round is a character-driven documentary feature that closely follows their journey in the search of recognition, reflecting a story about friendship and resilience in a stigmatized community.
The story of boxer Sean Mannion, born in the 1950s in Ros Muc in county Galway, Ireland, his boxing career, his emigration to America and the effect it had on him, his brush with organized crime in Boston.
Billed as "Ultimate Revenge", on September 18, 1998 for the WBC and lineal welterweight championships.
10 years before the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In 1979, Bill Viola and Frank Caliguri dreamed up a contest pitting barroom bigmouths against wrestlers, martial artists, boxers, bouncers and brawlers, billed as no-holds-barred new type of competitive fighting. When the fights succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, they were swept up in a chain of events that ended in the first mixed-martial arts ban in the nation. “Tough Guys” chronicles the inception of Caliguri and Viola’s first bouts and the colorful, crazy cast of fighters who made them a hit as well as the politicians who brought it all crashing down. The film brings to life a moment when the national martial arts craze was building to a crescendo as the economies of Pennsylvania steel towns were plummeting to levels of unemployment never seen, breeding desperate men looking for a chance to prove their worth and make some money in the ring.
Joe Calzaghe is, without question, the greatest British fighter, Ever. And this is his exclusive, all action story of how he fought his way to the top. Now unbeaten in 45 fights Joe has won WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF super middleweight titles during his epic 16 year unblemished career...and beaten absolutely everybody who has been put is his way! This is the Calzaghe Story which brings together his greatest World Title fights along with the exclusive, untold story from two boxing insiders, Frank Warren, and highly respected boxing journalist Colin Hart. These two men, with supreme knowledge of the boxing game, recount their stories about Joe the boxer, the world beater.
Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.
This is the story of Africa's first Boxing World Champion, Battling Siki. Who was this boxer born in Senegal, decorated for Bravery in World War I? Why do so few know that he fought and won the World Light Heavyweight Title aged 25, only to lose it controversially six months later? And why was his life cut short on a New York Street aged 28?
Corrales never won another boxing match. A rematch between him and Castillo occurred on October 8, 2005. On the day before the fight, Castillo weighed-in 1½ lb over the 135 lb (61 kg) lightweight limit. Since Castillo did not make the weight, the fight became a non-title bout. The two fighters continued with the same fighting style that they had used in the first fight, trading inside punches throughout the first three rounds. Early in the fourth round, Castillo knocked down Corrales with a left hook to his chin. Corrales wobbled to his feet at the referee's count of ten, causing the fight to end. A third fight between the two was scheduled, but never took place, due to Castillo again coming in overweight and Corrales not willing to have to try to overcome a weight disadvantage again.
Christy Martin broke boundaries and noses as she rose in the boxing world, but her public persona belied personal demons, abuse and a threat on her life.