Two years after throwing his fight with Tank Murdock at the end of Every Which Way but Loose, Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) keeps fighting in underground bareknuckle boxing matches to make money on the side. Philo decides to retire when he realizes that he has started to enjoy the pain. Philo and his manager Orville (Geoffrey Lewis) decide to end his career. The problem is Jack Wilson (William Smith), a new breed of East Coast brawler who mixes martial arts with boxing. He is so effective at maiming his opponents that his handlers cannot book fights for him.
Hillary Kramer (Streisand), a successful perfume magnate awakes one morning to find that her accountant has robbed her blind and left for South America. Going through all of her remaining assets she finds a boxer, purchased as a tax write off. She decides to take Eddie "Kid Natural" Scanlon (Ryan O'Neal) who is much more at home giving driving lessons, into the ring and use him as her key to riches. Eddie thinks this will only get him killed and resists.
Billy Flynn, an ex-boxing champion, is now a horse trainer in Hialeah, Florida. He makes just enough money to raise his little son T.J., of whom Flynn has full custody of since his wife Annie left him, seven years before the events of the film. T.J. worships "The Champ," who has gambling debts and begins working on a comeback to give his boy a better future. Suddenly Annie shows up again and wants to become a part of T.J.'s life.
In a brief scene in 1964, an aging, overweight Italian American, Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), practices a comedy routine. The rest of the film then occurs in flashback. In 1941, LaMotta is in a major boxing match against Jimmy Reeves, where he received his first loss. Jake's brother Joey LaMotta (Joe Pesci) discusses a potential shot for the middleweight title with one of his Mafia connections, Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent). Some time thereafter, Jake spots a 15-year-old girl named Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) at an open-air swimming pool in his Bronx neighborhood. He eventually pursues a relationship with her, even though he is already married. In 1943, Jake defeats Sugar Ray Robinson, and has a rematch three weeks later. Despite the fact that Jake dominates Robinson during the bout, the judges surprisingly rule in favor of Robinson and Joey feels Robinson won only because he was enlisting into the US Army the following week. By 1947, Jake marries Vickie.
Adonis Johnson Creed grew up without knowing his father Apollo, the one-time world heavyweight champion, and struggles to channel the strength, skill and toughness he inherited from him. After a fight in prison, he receives a visit from Rocky Balboa. Rocky had been given a world title shot by Apollo when he was just a club fighter in Philadelphia (Rocky), had eventually won Apollo's title in a rematch (Rocky II), had befriended him and been coached by him, rediscovering what Apollo called his "eye of the tiger" (Rocky III) and had been in Apollo's corner when Apollo had died in the ring against Ivan Drago (Rocky IV). Rocky shows Adonis who Apollo was and shows he believes Adonis can be a great like his father. Adonis tracks down Rocky at Adrian's Restaurant - the Italian restaurant in Philadelphia that Rocky owns and operates, named after his late wife - and asks Rocky to train him, and although Rocky is reluctant to re-enter the sport of boxing, having already suffered from trauma to the brain (Rocky V) and made a one-off comeback at a very advanced age (Rocky Balboa) before re-entering retirement, Rocky agrees.
Former Irish pugilist & Provisional IRA member Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) returns home to Belfast from a 14-year stint in prison at the age of 32. Weary of the unbroken cycle of violence in Northern Ireland, he attempts to settle down and live in peace. After meeting his drink-sodden old trainer Ike (Ken Stott), Danny starts up a non-sectarian boxing club for boys in an old gymnasium. While fixing up the old building, however, he runs across a cache of Semtex hidden underneath the stage. He throws the cache into the river.
The movie opens with a pregnant Mary Kom (Priyanka Chopra), heading towards the hospital with her husband Onler Kom (Darshan Kumaar). Onler is mistaken for an insurgent and beaten when he tries to find a vehicle despite a curfew. The film then shifts to a flashback with Mangte Chungeijang Kom, finding boxing gloves in the remains of an air crash in 1991, which prompted her interest in boxing despite her father's disapproval. During an early fight, she chases a boy and ends up in a boxing gym. The coach of the gym, Narjit Singh (Sunil Thapa) is the coach of the Asian Champion Dingko Singh, and Kom tells him about her boxing aspirations. He asks her to visit the gym for next thirty days and says that he will only teach her if she is deserving enough. She starts visiting the gym, telling her mother but not her father. Days pass but her father does not enquire about her. Due to Kom's dedication and stubbornness, Coach Singh starts training her, suggesting she change her name to Mary Kom.
Undisputed heavyweight boxing champion George "Iceman" Chambers (Rhames) is convicted of rape and sentenced to a new prison in the desert called Sweetwater. The high-security facility is populated by hardened criminals. Unaware of the prison's ways and its unique hierarchy, the pompous and bratty Chambers tries to impress upon the inmates his status as a champion boxer.
Jobless, besieged by creditors, and abandoned by his wife, the once silver medalist Tae-shik has sunk to street hustling, becoming a human punching bag. Meanwhile, young Sang-hwan's delinquent ways land him behind bars. Both men look to boxing to turn around lives gone astray, aiming for the amateur title, ultimately pitting them against each other, but more importantly, against themselves.
L'histoire retrace la carrière de Mohamed Ali, de sa victoire aux Jeux olympiques de Rome à sa reconquête de son titre de champion face à George Foreman, en passant par sa conversion à l'Islam et à son refus d'incorporation dans l'armée.
James "The Grim Reaper" Roper (Damon Wayans), the undefeated heavyweight boxing champ of the world, defeats his latest challenger with ease and visits an after-party thrown by the Rev. Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson), a conniving and manipulative businessman who also acts as Roper's fight promoter. The Sultan relays some bad news to everyone: The fight was a financial flop. He deduces the reason that boxing events have become far less profitable is because audience members are sick of watching only black boxers fight each other. The Sultan predicts that a white contender, even one without a viable chance of winning, would create a huge payday for all involved in the fight (citing the Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney battle in 1982 and the playing of the race card in that instance as a precedent), and he vows to either find or "create" a white contender in no time at all.
At a young age, Jackie Kallen learns about boxing with her father and uncle in a small gym. Later, she becomes the assistant to a Cleveland boxing promoter. Her boss then begins doing business with Sam LaRocca, a sports manager, during a middleweight championship fight.
Harry Fabian (De Niro) is a fast-talking, two-bit New York lawyer who hangs out at a bar called Boxers, owned by Phil (Gorman) and his wife Helen (Lange). Harry has been having an affair with Helen, who dreams of setting up her own bar and leaving Phil. At the bar, he spots an article in the New York Post about a man who was pummeled by a boxer. He calls the man on Phil's phone and pitches a lawsuit against the boxer on the grounds that his fists are legally considered weapons. The fighter is promoted by Ira "Boom Boom" Grossman (King), who tries to muscle Harry off the idea of suing his boxer. The case is promptly dismissed by the judge, who knows that it is baseless.
À la fin des années 1980, le boxeur Vinny Pazienza est au sommet de son art. Adulé, il enchaine les victoires à chaque combat. Un terrible accident de voiture va cependant remettre en cause toute sa carrière. Vinny est très grièvement blessé et se retrouve partiellement paralysé. Les médecins lui annoncent qu'il pourra un jour remarcher, mais qu'il ne devra plus jamais boxer. Vinny ne peut accepter ce diagnostic et va alors se tourner vers l'entraineur Kevin Rooney, pour recommencer à combattre. Contre l'avis de tous, Vinny va tout faire pour remonter sur le ring.
Chaney (Charles Bronson), a mysterious, down-on-his luck drifter during the Great Depression, arrives in town in the boxcar of a freight train. He comes upon a bare-knuckled street fight run by gamblers. After the bout, he approaches one of the fight's organizers, the fast-talking "Speed" (James Coburn), and asks Speed to set up a fight. Betting his few dollars on himself, Chaney wins with a single punch.