Why boxing endures on stage and screen despite slipping popular support
Josh O’Connor is starring in a London production of Clifford Odets’s 1937 play Golden Boy, a production discussed in a feature published on 2 October 2026. The article argues that although boxing’s general popularity has waned, narratives about fighters continue to draw audiences in theatre and film.
The writer says three personal pleasures—watching sport, going to the theatre and playing violin—led to discovering Golden Boy, which she had not heard of before. She notes Golden Boy has not been performed in the UK in more than 40 years and describes its premise: a gifted young violinist in Depression-era America who is lured away from music by the pursuit of fame and money in the ring. In the current London production the protagonist is played by Josh O’Connor, whom “Knives Out” fans have seen with his fists up as a boxer turned priest in Wake Up Dead Man, and the reviewer reports O’Connor attacks a heavy bag “with the kind of power that does indeed make you worry for his precious hands.”
The piece places Odets’s play in its 1930s context, saying he was reflecting a time when New York life was bleak, opportunities were few and boxing presented a mirage of escape from poverty. It argues Golden Boy functions as an allegory in which the hero, as he finds his feet inside the ropes, is losing his more tender self and the chance of a quieter contentment. The article states boxing has long provided rich material for stories on stage and screen and claims there are more Hollywood movies about boxing than any other sport.
The feature discusses how boxing narratives accommodate wide-ranging themes, from Odets’s excoriating critique of capitalism to the different tone of Ron Howard’s 2005 Cinderella Man, in which Russell Crowe portrays the real-life James J Braddock during his title fight against Max Baer. The writer contrasts those treatments to show how the same fight-world setting can be used to deliver opposing dramatic intentions.
Alfred Hitchcock’s only self-penned film, The Ring, is noted as having come out “99 years ago this month,” with lead actor Carl Brisson described as having been a Danish and European champion; the director’s use of pioneering point-of-view camerawork to show a fighter sliding into a concussion is highlighted and the film’s protagonist is called a wannabe adulterer. The article then lists 1940s noirs that used the boxing world—Body and Soul, Champion and The Set-Up—and cites Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss, including the original poster tagline: “Her Soft Mouth Was The Road to Sin-Smeared Violence!”
Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull is described as “generally considered the acme of boxing movies,” portraying its real-life subject, Jake LaMotta, as an abusive and pathological antihero. The writer reports Scorsese had not wanted to make the film and that Robert De Niro was fascinated by LaMotta’s self-destructive story and the physical transformation required to tell it.
The article sets out the physical demands boxing roles place on actors, naming Daniel Day-Lewis, Jake Gyllenhaal, Will Smith and Hilary Swank as performers who undertook months of training and daily sparring. It says Mark Wahlberg had a ring built in his home and honed his craft for five years before shooting The Fighter, while his co-star Christian Bale won the Oscar. Michael B Jordan is quoted: “I like living like a fighter, training like a fighter,” he said. “I’ve broken my hand a few times doing this movie. Hands swollen. Like, I wanna feel it. I want to go home and ache.”
The piece traces boxing’s reciprocal relationship with film back to Sylvester Stallone, noting his 1976 script for Rocky was inspired by the bout between Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali the year before. It records that Liev Schreiber played Wepner in the 2016 biopic The Bleeder and concludes by saying next month viewers will see the fight onscreen in Stallone’s own biopic, I Play Rocky.