The Super Fight (1970)

Starring: Muhammed Ali and Rocky Marciano
Grade: C-

Ladies and gentlemen, the inspiration for 2006’s Rocky Balboa.

Summary

The point of The Super Fight is to determine the all-time greatest heavyweight boxer between two of the greatest undefeated champions (Ali was undefeated at the time and was banned from boxing because of his refusal to go to Vietnam) at the height of their abilities. In one corner, wearing black trunks, at 5’10.5” and weighing 200 lbs., the “Brockton Blockbuster”, Rocky Marciano. In the other corner, wearing the white trunks, at 6’3” and weighing 220 lbs., Muhammed Ali.

Through more than three years of research by leading sportswriters around the world, by members of the World Boxing Historians Association, by the cooperation and participation of Marciano and Ali, and by many other world champions, referees, and the like who contributed their boxing knowledge, everything was programmed and inserted into some supercomputer to determine accurately who would win in a dream matchup. In addition, both fighters sparred for 75 one-minute rounds, which were edited to create the fight of the film. The computer told everyone how many punches both fighters would land, where, how hard, and if it would affect their opponent. Along with this, the computer could tell each man’s condition in each round including cuts, knockdowns, gave them round by round scores, the winner, what round the fight would end, and how. Following this introduction, we go through analyzation of each fighter, their styles, strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and how they would react to their opponent based off of everything we know.

In this analyzation section of the film, we get soundbites from Jersey Joe Wilcott, “Cinderella Man” James Braddock, Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, the son of trainer Jack Kearns, and a couple of reputable writers. While we hear their analysis on the potential dream match, highlights and old training footage are shown of both Marciano and Ali. As referee Chris Dundee has the two stand across from each other in the ring, we have two pre-match interviews of the legends themselves. Rocky Marciano is humble in his and talks about how he’s glad a computer is figuring out the details so there’s no hometown decisions or bias of any kind since the computer takes the human elements out of it. He admits Muhammed Ali’s speed is incredible and gives him credit as the fastest heavyweight of all time. He also commends him on his reflexes, moves, and conditioning. When asked if he were to face him and what is strategy would be, Marciano says he’d stick to his same style of getting low and making himself a smaller target, a harder one to hit on the chin at that. Furthermore, he would stick to bobbing and weaving and staying in as close as he could to Ali while trying to push him towards the ropes. In Ali’s interview, he says straight away that there’s no chance he would be cornered and how it’s a difficult strategy to pull off with someone like him. Then, he points out that if any fighter gets in close with him, whether it’s Marciano or anyone at all, they will be hit, so he’s not necessarily buying Marciano’s plan. Also, Ali goes on about how he’s never really been knocked out or shook up, he’s never been considered slow, and he’s hard to catch. For anyone to think they can corner him is plainly “science fiction talk”, as he eloquently puts it.

With Guy LeBow on commentary, the all-time dream fight between Muhammed Ali and Rocky Marciano is on!

My Thoughts:

Controversial to some but intriguing for the ideas presented, The Super Fight takes us back in time and tries to answer the age-old question of who the greatest boxer is by actually pitting the two fighters in the ring, with the action being edited together in accordance with what the computer program says what would happen round by round.

The premise for this is awesome. In every sport, fans have always gone through dream matches and compared eras. It’s a big part of sports discourse and is still regularly relied on today, from SportsCenter to every podcast imaginable. Though you technically can’t prove your points because the stars or teams you are comparing in these matchups could never face off in their primes and it’s all based on stats, research, and educated opinions, it’s a lot of fun to think of fantasy warfare in any capacity. The Super Fight takes this concept and puts it to film. Unfortunately, we are not privy to the exact details of the computer used to determine such an important decision or its accuracy. The audience has no choice but to just go with the ideas presented with it and trust that the filmmaker is doing things without bias. Depending on who you are a bigger fan of, this can pose a lot of questions regarding ethics. Again, the concept is awesome and the hype it builds to before the fight commences does pique your interest as a fan of boxing. For casual viewers however, this may not be as enthralling as you’d hope for it to be. It starts with the first ten minutes of analyzation. Obviously, the actual fight is the most important part, but the analyzation going into it from all of these insiders and other world champion boxers should have been given more time to develop. We get about a sentence or two from all of these legends of the sport and then kind of jump right into it. Why can’t we get sit-down interviews from guys like Jersey Joe Walcott, who actually fought Marciano but still says Ali is the greatest? We can’t hear the son of Jack Hearns give us a more in-depth look at Marciano’s style while accompanied with fight footage? Why are we just given a few voiceovers?

If you got legends on the payroll, you should’ve used them more to see what they think about how Marciano and Ali would approach each other. They know a fighter’s mentality better than anyone. Why waste this opportunity with a couple of mumbled statements? Let them give us some real analysis! To convince us of the validity of the information gathered from both fighters, more was needed in this section of the film in general. Though I will give credit for the writing summing up Marciano and Ali’s fighting philosophies and styles very well, this is the one production in which it should have been more drawn out. In addition, the presentation of the setup was crucial to the overall production, but it was below average to say the least. I’ve seen better highlights and training footage in YouTube documentaries made by amateur filmmakers. The quality was subpar, it goes by just as quick as a pre-fight video package that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s PPV climate, and we’re forced to be at the mercy of this unknown computer software that isn’t explained well at all. Again, we’re just supposed to trust it wholeheartedly without much explanation on how it was created, how they were able to input the info of all these boxers and historians into the program, and if intangibles were even considered. With that being said, the stats being pulled up after each round along with the scorecards was a unique way to add tension overall. The stats seemed accurate enough and they weren’t too wordy, though choosing white as the color of the captions was a bad choice. It blended in with Ali’s trunks and the mat, and it gets hard to see at times.

The Super Fight is more interested in presenting the actual fight as the bulk of the movie, as the remaining fifty-three minutes (following the first fifteen) of the feature is the fight itself. Yes, this does make sense because it is indeed what we came to see. However, if the presentation of the introduction was put together with more care and better visuals, the movie as a whole would have felt a lot more complete and intriguing for all viewers, pulling in superfans because of the premise and casual fans because of how well-researched and explained everything is. Because of this, it plays more like an actual PPV match rather than a semi-documentary/simulated fight. What’s frustrating is that it sells itself as the latter in the opening ten minutes, but it’s really the former. It’s a regular boxing match with an average pre-fight video package before it. This is basically it. Regardless, the actual fight itself is very good. Though he was banned from the sport at that moment in time, Ali was at his best and looked it. Even more impressive was the middle-aged Rocky Marciano. To make the fight look better for the viewing audience and to make it look like both fighters were in their primes for the sake of the production, Marciano dropped over 50 pounds and sported a toupee to look like his old self, and it really helped in making us suspend our disbelief in the moment as if we are watching two of the greatest ever square off through use of a time machine. The only thing missing was more pomp and circumstance to the event. Why have this fight in what looks like a warehouse? This is a movie after all. A cinematic packaging was needed to sell the “Big Fight Feel”, as this was a fight of epic proportions that deserved extravagance. Savor the moment. Fill an arena with screaming extras, have stretched out entrances or introductions, give us closeups of each fighter before they stand across from each other, and give us a post-match speech! The ending was way too abrupt for a finish like that.

The actual action of the fight was done very well too. Once you start to digest how things are unfolding and start to settle in, it gets a lot more intense. The feeling out stages, the drama, the counters, the defense, the offense, and the adrenaline bursts all felt authentic and grounded in realism of a real-life matchup between the two. This isn’t choregraphed whatsoever.

To go back in time to 1970 where you didn’t know how things would turn out, can you imagine how awesome The Super Fight would’ve been to go view with your friends on the big screen? It’s a lot like today when a friend hosts a PPV at their house, and everyone brings drinks and snacks as you all get hyped up to watch two gladiators wage war. Though it may miss out on the overall look of a cinematic quality fight, it still works as a regular, realistic “PPV fight” in its style.

The production does pose a lot of questions though. The selling point of The Super Fight is the supercomputer software program, its accuracy, and how much was put into it to portray the fight as accurately as possible and to determine a decisive winner without bias. Okay, so, why are there two different endings that exist then? In America, Marciano wins. However, when they released the film in Europe, it was shown with the ending of Muhammed Ali winning. If this computer is what they say it is, there should only be one ending. The legitimacy of the entire production is questioned because of this fact alone. You have to choose one winner. That is quite literally the entire point of this operation. Though some have said that it came out to a draw, I don’t buy that for a second. Did they really run this whole thing through the computer several times over with all of the information they collected, and it came out dead even?

Bullshit.

They just didn’t want to offend anyone. It’s also possible that they filmed both endings because they were anticipating Ali suing writer/director Murray Woroner again like he did when Woroner released the radio version in 1967 in which Ali lost in the second round of a tournament to Jim Jeffries. However, why go through the trouble at all if this was going to happen? Now, I’m not trying to pick sides on who I think would win, but are we 100% positive that there weren’t any additional biases considering Ali was banned from the sport at the time and was considered a controversial figure for his outspokenness regarding political issues? It couldn’t have helped. What about the bad timing of Marciano dying three weeks after filming ended? Is it possible that they may have felt Marciano dying and subsequently losing this hypothetical fight would be insensitive? Does anyone think these points could have been factored into the version released in America being the one where Marciano won? Again, I’m a huge fan of Marciano, but you can’t help but take all of this under consideration.

The Super Fight is like unearthing a time capsule and watching it brings back some serious nostalgia, as well as plenty of chatter regarding the greats of the legendary sport. Admittedly, the film could have been edited and directed a lot better and doesn’t do much from a cinematic perspective to take advantage of the awesome idea behind it, which is why it’s nowhere near as good as it should be. Even so, this was fun enough for me to want more. The possibilities behind something like The Super Fight are endless and will inspire you to crave similarly-themed productions, or at least consider other “Fantasy Warfare” matches. In an era of ESPN running out of things to talk about unless it’s something extremely divisive and controversial, now is as good a time as any to bring movies like this back. ESPN+ needs content, and the idea behind The Super Fight could be exactly what is needed. Can you imagine a simulated, CGI, video game-like production to determine who would win between Lennox Lewis and George Foreman, or Joe Louis taking on Mike Tyson? The computer software’s of today and the programming specialists behind them are only better, and even more details could be added to the formula to further the accuracy of each fight result. Plus, we have the technology to make every bit of the action look as real as possible without having to bring the fighters into the studio to make them act things out in person. You could even consider a production like this regarding different sports too! Imagine an all-time Boston Celtics lineup taking on an all-time Los Angeles Lakers lineup, or a PGA tournament including the greatest golfers the sport has ever known? Do you see what I’m saying? The Super Fight inspires creativity and possibilities no matter how average it is.

If a better writer/director was in charge, it could’ve hit on every aspect.