For xboxrz only...

Rating: 2/10 (12 May 2014)

Professional boxing, it seems, has always been on the ropes in one way or another (lawmakers have been trying to outlaw the sport for hundreds of years). As Drama, boxing's about as pure as it gets. Consider Shinya Tsukamoto's powerful TOKYO FIST, for instance, or Rod Serling's REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (either version); or John Huston's FAT CITY; Robert Wise's THE SET-UP; THE HARDER THEY FALL, with Humphrey Bogart; THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, with James Earl Jones; Russell Crowe in Cinderella MAN... There are others; there will be more. Unfortunately, GRUDGE MATCH is exactly what boxing DOESN'T need: another prefab fight film with more flab than jab. (A larger than life statue of Stallone was erected in Philadelphia in honor of the ROCKY movie franchise. No such statue honoring the late Joe Frazier- the Real Life Heavyweight Champion of the World, who fought out of Philly- was ever erected. In yet another bit of irony, Stallone's character in GRUDGE MATCH reveals that he's blind in his left eye- a medical condition that Frazier himself had but kept under wraps throughout his entire career.) Far more realistic than a pay-per-view bout would've been a charity exhibition between the two old timers. (A recent look at the Maidana-Payweather travesty- in which Maidana won nine rounds out of twelve, yet somehow managed to lose the decision!- is indicative of just how little most of the folks feeding us "boxing" really know about the sport. One of the know-nothing commentators actually suggested as a strategy that Maidana "jab to the body." While jabbing to the body might set up something ELSE- a follow-up body shot with the right or a hook off the jab to the body or a right over the top-, jabbing to the body alone makes no sense. In the end, it didn't really matter: Maidana LOST points for hitting his opponent, while Payweather was GIVEN points for each blow he took- and he took a LOT of them. Look at the laughable "punch stats," which were CLEARLY in error. Home Box Orifice was bad enough, but now ShoTime's rigging decisions for its in-house fighters. Maidana summed it up nicely when asked if he wanted a rematch. "Since I won the fight," he said, "I'm willing to give the challenger a rematch." On the other hand, when he started to hold up a cookie he was eating, the ShoTime toady with the mic snatched it out of his hand with a remonstration: "Huh-uh"- meaning NO- while every single inch of the ring and the cornermen's clothes were adorned with corporate logos.) Stallone, more than any other actor, has cashed in BIG TIME thanks to boxing- but he's given little back. Why not start a Sports Channel with BOXING at its core (something we haven't seen since the early days of ESPN); someone with Stallone's pull could get it done. (James "Bonecrusher" Smith is trying to get a Boxing Hall of Fame opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Stallone could throw in with Smith...)