Best movies like Sparring
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Sparring Starring Mathieu Kassovitz, Souleymane M'Baye, Billie Blain, Lyes Salem, and more. If you liked Sparring then you may also like: When We Were Kings, Naked Boys Singing!, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Rocky III, Rocky V and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Steve Landry, an aging boxer with more losses than wins, accepts to become a sparring partner for an emerging champion in a last-ditch attempt to stay relevant.
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Naked Boys Singing!
This whimsical Off-Broadway hit musical is aptly reworked and transferred to the screen. The self-descriptively titled Naked Boys Singing is a musical revue of songs that poke fun at gay life, body image, love, loss and yearning.
Requiem for a Heavyweight
Mountain Rivera is a veteran heavyweight and near-champion who suddenly finds himself washed up in the only trade he knows—prizefighting. Yet, threatened by gangsters for welshing on a gambling debt, Mountain’s opportunistic manager, Maish Rennick, schemes to get the ex-boxer into a phony wrestling match to make some quick money. Although he and his loyal trainer, Army, oppose the degrading proposition, the disillusioned Mountain begins to wonder if he has any options left.
Rocky III
Now the world champion, Rocky Balboa is living in luxury and only fighting opponents who pose no threat to him in the ring, until Clubber Lang challenges him to a bout. After taking a pounding from Lang, the humbled champ turns to former bitter rival Apollo Creed for a rematch with Lang.
Journeyman
A boxer suffers a serious head injury during a fight, and must deal with the consequences.
Kid Galahad
After completing his military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.
Boardwalk
In this drama, David Rosen and his wife Becky have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for nearly all their married life. But the area is not what it used to be, and a gang leader named Strut has decided to make Coney Island his new turf. Strut begins shaking down the merchants in the area, demanding payment for "protection" and using violence to deal with anyone who gets in his way. David refuses to give Strut protection money for the restaurant he owns, and as a result his diner is soon firebombed, while many of his neighbors are attacked and his synagogue is desecrated.
The Challenger
A legendary trainer comes out of retirement to help an underdog boxer fight his way to a better life.
The Champion
Walking along with his bulldog, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.
Legionnaire
Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. As part of the legion he tangles with abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and bonds with legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh and Rosetti.
Diggstown
Gabriel Caine has just been released from prison when he sets up a bet with a business man. The business man owns most of a boxing-mad town called Diggstown. The bet is that Gabe can find a boxer that will knock out 10 Diggstown men, in a boxing ring, within 24 hours. "Honey" Roy Palmer is that man - although at 48, many say he is too old.
The Fighters
Behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
Golden Boy
Despite his talent as a musician, a city boy decides to become a boxer. He's successful as a fighter — much to the dismay of his parents. When gangsters try to by a piece of him, he begins to have second thoughts.
Creed III
After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed has thrived in his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian Anderson, resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian — a fighter with nothing to lose.
Small, Slow But Steady
A hearing-impaired woman with dreams of becoming a professional boxer due to the pandemic is threatened closure of her boxing club and the illness of its ageing president, who has been her biggest supporter, push her to the limit.
Tough Enough
An aspiring country singer, whose money is disappearing faster than his career opportunities, enters a "Tough Man" amateur boxing contest to earn some cash to pay his bills. Amazingly enough, he wins it, and is picked to go onto the national finals. He's torn between his first love, music, and the glitz, glamor and money of the "Tough Man" world.
Fists of Iron
When Dale Hartwell's best friend gets killed, he swears revenge on the bloodthirsty promoter and fighter who did it.
Iron Man
In Coaltown, Pennsylvania, miner Coke Mason hopes to better himself, buy a radio store, and marry Rose Warren. His gambler brother George thinks Coke can be more successful as a boxer, knowing that when he fights he's consumed with a murderous rage that makes him an "iron man." Seeing dollar signs in Rose's eyes, Coke reluctantly agrees, though he's fearful of the "killer instinct" that makes him a knockout success in the ring...and brings him the booing hatred of the fans. Will Coke throw off his personal demon before he kills someone?
The Piano
After a long voyage from Scotland, pianist Ada McGrath and her young daughter, Flora, are left with all their belongings, including a piano, on a New Zealand beach. Ada, who has been mute since childhood, has been sold into marriage to a local man named Alisdair Stewart. Making little attempt to warm up to Alisdair, Ada soon becomes intrigued by his Maori-friendly acquaintance, George Baines, leading to tense, life-altering conflicts.
Play It to the Bone
Two aging fighters in LA, friends, get a call from a Vegas promoter because his undercard fighters for a Mike Tyson bout that night are suddenly unavailable. He wants them to box each other. They agree as long as the winner gets a shot at the middleweight title. They enlist Grace, Cesar's current and Vinnie's ex girlfriend, to drive them to Vegas.
The Power of One
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
A Prayer Before Dawn
The amazing true story of Billy Moore, an English boxer incarcerated in Thailand’s most notorious prison. Thrown into a world of drugs and violence, he finds his best chance to escape is to fight his way out in prison Muay Thai tournaments.
Tyson
The story of Mike Tyson. From his early days as a 12 year old amateur with a powerful punch, to the undisputed title of "Heavyweight Champion of the World", and ultimately to his conviction for rape. The story of his turbulent life moves quickly, never focusing for long on anything in particular.
Undisputed
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lost his title due to a rape conviction to ten years in Sweetwater. WHen these two giants collide in the same prison, they fight against each other disputing who is the real champion.
The Survivor
Harry Haft is a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by the memories and his guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.
The Revenger
When saxophonist Mike Teller's brother Mackie is killed before being able to deliver $500,000 to mob boss Jack Fisher, Mike is arrested as an accomplice and thrown into prison for five years. Upon his release, he finds Fisher has kidnapped his wife, Lisa, believing Mike has the stolen drug money. With the help of Mackie's old Vietnam war buddy, Harry Crawford, Mike and Harry rescue Lisa, but now have to escape the clutches of the mob in Harry's remote cabin. Will Jack Fisher retrieve his money or will Mike get his revenge?
Southpaw
Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.
Hands of Stone
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Misunderstood
Rome, 1984, Aria is nine-year-old girl. On the verge of divorce, Aria's infantile and selfish parents are too preoccupied with their careers and extra-marital affairs to properly tend to any of Aria's needs. While her two older sisters are pampered, Aria is treated with cold indifference. Yet she yearns to love and to be loved. At school, Aria excels academically but is considered a misfit by everyone. She is misunderstood. Aria finds comfort in her cat - Dac and in her best friend - Angelica. Thrown out of both parents' homes, abandoned by all, even her best friend, Aria finally reaches the limit of what she can bear. She makes an unexpected decision in her life.
The Here After
When John returns home to his father after serving time in prison, he is looking forward to starting his life afresh. However, in the local community his crime is neither forgotten nor forgiven.
Fighting For A City
The story of a young boxer on the road to his dream; a world title fight in his hometown of Leeds. On the way, we meet an extraordinary family, a father who trains his son and the most passionate fans in boxing. The film is set against the backdrop of one city; Leeds. Half aspirational professionals and students, half austerity ravaged estates, Leeds is a schizophrenic metaphor for England in 2016. Our boxer bridges the two because this is a city in need of a hero. Can he match and fulfil their hopes and dreams?
Casablanca Driver
This mockumentary follows the world's worst boxer and the events that led to his meteoric rise in the year 1969.
Steak
George is the scapegoat of his classmates. One day he cracks and shoots them. His best and only friend Blaise is accused in his place and sentenced to 7 years in a psychiatric hospital. At the day of his release, Blaise realizes he only has one family: his best friend George. But he does not want to hear about his childhood friend, as he tries to integrate with the “Chivers” a gang whose members wear red jackets and boots, drink milk, drive sport trucks and play an incomprehensible and violent game that mixes cricket and mental arithmetic.
Catch the Fair One
A Native American boxer embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister.
Flying Fists
A lumberjack knocks out a champion boxer in a brawl, gets drawn into the boxing world where he is unknowingly set up for a fixed fight.
The Factory
When a factory is bound to close, a group of workers decides to take action against the owner.
Waking Up Dead
Beautiful and self-destructive, hot-shot actor Danny Maldonado was once about to conquer Hollywood. Now, just a few years later, his career has flatlined, his boyfriend has dumped him and his long-estranged drug addict mother is dying. But when he's called in to audition for the lead role in the most talked-about new series in Hollywood, Danny vows to clean up his act, win his ex back and give the greatest audition of his life. What could go wrong?
You Will Be Mine
Marie leaves home to study the piano at the conservatory in Lyons. Through lack of money, she is obliged to share an apartment with Emma, a friend of the family who has lived alone since the death of her father. The two young women develop a strange fascination for one another, which soon develops into an intense mutual need...
The All-American Boy
Vic "Bomber" Bealer is a handsome, manipulative boxer who aspires to something greater than the small-town life he knows in Texas. But, even when opportunities present themselves, Bealer is too restless and indecisive to take advantage. Despite being on the cusp of making the Olympic boxing team, his life is in total disarray as he juggles relationships with an old flame, a girl who's way too young for him, and a foul-mouthed trainer.
Manny
From abject poverty to becoming a ten-time boxing world champion, congressman, and international icon, Manny Pacquiao is the true definition of a Cinderella story. In the Philippines, he first entered the ring as a sixteen-year-old weighing ninety-eight pounds with the goal of earning money to feed his family. Now, almost twenty years later, when he fights, the country of 100 million people comes to a complete standstill to watch. Regarded for his ability to bring people together, Pacquiao entered the political arena in 2010. As history’s first boxing congressman, Pacquiao now fights for his people both inside and outside of the ring. Now at the height of his career, he is faced with maneuvering an unscrupulous sport while maintaining his political duties. The question now is, what bridge is too far for Manny Pacquiao to cross?
On the Ropes
The story of three young boxers and their coach who is determined to guide them in a positive direction in and out of the ring.
When We Were Kings
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.