Is Boxing Hollywood’s Favorite Sport?

Is Boxing Hollywood’s favorite sport? Maybe; it certainly comes close and Hollywood has given us a few classics and a huge amount of dross over the years with the pugilist’s art form.

There are too many terrible movies on the debit side of the account to mention. On the other side of the account is “Raging Bull” by far the best boxing movie of all time for lovers of film more than of boxing – though boxing historians also love it. This was surely Robert De Niro’s finest moment, or one of them, as it was for Martin Scorsese and Joe Pesci – though perhaps “Goodfellas” was the absolute pinnacle for all three? For fans wanting to see a lot of pugilism, though, Raging Bull isn’t really the place to go. Instead – you have to go for the documentaries or “Rocky” depending on how serious a fan you are.

Now we’ve been skirting around these two issues here; the Rocky series of movies and the excellent boxing documentary films. So let’s deal with the easy stuff first – the best ever boxing documentary movies are – “The Thrilla in Manilla” (2009), “Assault in the Ring” from the same year and, best of the lot, the 1996 movie documentary “When We Were Kings”.

These are all must-see movies for lovers of real boxing. For those who want their heroics a lot more stylized, there are the endless Rocky “love them or hate them” movies.

Serious fans simply ignore Sylvester, though, and concentrate on the real stuff – both documentaries and real action. And becoming an expert can really help you get and edge if you’re a bit of a gambler, particularly given the advent of the big betting exchanges like Betfair.

With Betfair, betting on boxing can be a lot of fun for the experts because, of course, you have the ability to back and lay during matches. This puts those people who know the sport inside out at a real advantage. They can quickly tell when a boxer’s seeming tiredness is actually a sham as he saves it all up for once big blast. Think Mohammed Ali in the “thriller in Manilla” and you’ll soon know what we’re talking about here.

Alternatively, you can often get huge odds with Betfair during a match on a fighter who is losing heavily on points but who has one huge punch in his armory and is liable to land it. The in-play odds with Betfair mean that if you can find a “Gentleman Jim http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034778/” type of fighter, you could clean up; so good luck.

Boxing probably is Hollywood’s favorite sport – but follow the documentaries rather than the pap if you love the real sport.