The 20 best boxing movies of all time

Grudge Match didn't get good reviews , really. But, c'mon, this movie's got a stacked cast, including Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, Jon Bernthal, and oh, by the way, De Niro and Sylvester Stallone, and they're all clearly having some fun. It's a light movie, but it's charming enough. Having Rocky Balboa and Jake LaMotta onboard puts it on this list.

The tagline to this movie was "A Glove Story." It is, hands down, the best boxing movie starring Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand in which Babs loses her perfume fortunate after being robbed by her unscrupulous business manager and becomes a boxing manager in order to make it all back while finding love in the process. In fact, it's not even close.

Another classic, Anthony Quinn is a podunk puncher who needs to retire. Another brutal loss will leave him with a detached retina or worse. Quinn plays a lumbering but gentle giant, trying to preserve his dignity and avoid exhibition wrestling matches. Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone) wrote this, and it's total American tragedy stuff.

Clubber Lang is one of the finest creations in all of fiction. Problematic? Most definitely. Memorable? Incredibly.

What more is there to say about Rocky IV? The movie ended the Cold War!

Arguably the finest boxing doc, and even sports doc, this chronicle of "The Rumble in the Jungle" between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali is required viewing for any fan of the sweet science.

Ryan Coogler's reboot of the Rocky franchise netted Stallone an Oscar nomination, himself a seat at the Marvel table and solidified Michael B. Jordan as one of the best actors of his generation. Adonis Creed's first fight, a one-take beauty, swooping around the ring, is what filmmaking and boxing flicks are all about. I can't wait for the next one, whenever it arrives.

Roger Ebert, take the wheel: "Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby is a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true." Eastwood hasn't been better as an actor or director since, and you can probably say the same for Morgan Freeman. Hilary Swank netted her second Oscar playing the waitress trying to punch her way out of poverty. This movie guts you.

Boxing is the least dangerous thing Daniel Day-Lewis's Danny Flynn gets himself involved in in this re-team with director Jim Sheridan. But the in-ring stuff is just as thrilling as the drama surrounding forbidden love and Irish separatism.

Michael Mann's portrait of the Greatest is a capital B biopic. Will Smith's never been better than he is here in the title role. Boxing's such fertile ground for film that this one barely cracked our top three.

Rocky's a perfect movie. The screenplay's perfect. The cast is perfect. I challenge anyone to keep his or her heart rate steady when Bill Conti's iconic score starts up. The trailer's voice-over ends with, "His name is Sylvester Stallone, but you will always remember him as Rocky." Fact check: True.