The Boxing Episode - Television Tropes & Idioms

"I'm guessing head trauma."

KOWALSKI: Logic! Exactly! Boxing has nothing to do with logic. It is sport taken to its purest nut. It is muscles, sweat, guts, torque, load . . . I mean, you ever meet a logical person who would bite off another man's ear?
FRASER: It's just another argument for protective helmets. With ear flaps.

— Ray Kowalski and Constable Benton Fraser, Due South, "Mountie and Soul"

Largely associated with Mystery of the Week television series, this is an episode that is wholly or in part structured around the sport of boxing. These episodes tend to crop up most often in action/adventure and crime solving series, but they can also be played for laughs in sitcoms.

For the purposes of the episode, one of the show's regular characters will usually be revealed as a boxing aficionado. This can serve one of two purposes: providing a reason for the characters to attend or take part in a boxing event (when the course of the show normally wouldn't take them there), or allowing the character in question to offer some key piece of information that would only be known to someone who is familiar with the ins and outs of the world of boxing. The character's boxing savvy will rarely if ever be revisited outside the confines of The Boxing Episode.

Mixed Martial Arts may be used as a substitute for boxing. May involve an element of Fight Clubbing or Gladiator Games. Often this will be the result of a former boxer falling on hard times and entering a world of underground fighting to make ends meet, provide for his ailing child/wife/etc, or as an attempt to hang on to the limelight.

Compare with Pro Wrestling Episode and the Forced Prizefight.

Examples

Anime & Manga

One of the early episodes of Digimon Savers involved the Monster of the Week interfering with Touma's idol's boxing matches. However, he had been shown to be a proficient boxer before this episode, and his Digimon partner wears boxing gloves, so this didn't come entirely out of nowhere...
An episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex involved Batou investigating a famous boxer suspected of criminal activity.
Gokusen has a boxing episode, as part of a Save The School plotline.
One Piece has the main character box against someone too, against exactly one person... Afro Luffy is the result.
An early chapter of Shaman King had Yoh use the ghost of a boxing coach to help out his pupil.

Comic Books

Superman vs Muhammad Ali.
- Incredibly enough, Muhammad Ali wins.
- Justified: Superman didn't have his Yellow-sun strength, had no experience boxing, and it wasn't really him that Ali boxed anyway.
Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7: A famous story where The Thing and several other Marvel heroes fight the Champion of the Universe in a series of boxing matches. This comic was later made into a Wrestling Episode of Dial M for Monkey.
In an issue of Justice League the Blue Beetle challenges Guy Gardner to a boxing match when he gets sick of Guy calling him out of shape and useless. Beetle wins, which would be surprising considering that Guy was one of the team's heavy hitters and Beetle was the comedy relief and tech-support guy ... except for the fact that Guy was a Green Lantern without his Power Ring in a fistfight with a Badass Normal.
There was a boxing-themed Hellraiser comic called "The Sweet Science". It was kind of stupid.

Live-Action TV

Skippy The Bush Kangaroo has an episode where boxers set up a training area in the part. It ends up in showing Skippy wear boxing gloves though she never actually boxes.
The Police Squad! episode "Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment)" plays this for laughs.
Racked Squad: in 'The Knock-Out' a con game group stages boxing fights that are said to be rigged. During the fight the victim attends, one of the fighters fakes his death in the ring. Then the victim is convinced that going to the police or Boxing Commission will result in everybody being indicted for manslaughter.
In the Hogan's Heroes episode The Softer They Fall, Kinchloe boxed against a German (Those Wacky Nazis') as (naturally) part of a scheme to divert attention from a heist.
Happy Days: Ralph boxes another boy for the hand of a girl. Only one problem: he doesn't know how to box. Link. In a much later episode we see Chachi in the ring too.
Taxi: Tony is a semi-pro boxer who trains kids at a youth center, so boxing comes up a few times as a main plot.
M*A*S*H:
- Trapper John (a surgeon!) is the 4077th's boxing champion; he takes on the champ of the 8063rd, a heavyweight enlisted man.
- Another episode has Frank Burns setting up a boxing match to settle a dispute between Klinger and Sgt. Zale.
The Dick Van Dyke Show: in one of the many Flashback episodes Rob is in the Army, where everyone has to learn boxing and have at least three fights.
The Jeffersons: George boxed in the Navy, and puts the equipment on again after he gets in a disagreement with another man at the gym. Louise tried to plead with the man to go easy on George:
Louise: He only has one kidney!
Other Guy: Really? Which one? I'd hate to waste a good kidney punch.
- Then Louise bribes the other guy to throw the fight; meanwhile George decides to throw the fight himself, so they spend the entire fight not hitting each other, waiting for the other to hit them so they can fall down. Link.
Family Matters: In the episode "Requiem for an Urkel," the series' main protagonist Steve Urkel (a nerdy, 98-pound weakling) has problems with a bully and the two get into a scuffle at school, a teacher has the two settle their differences in the ring. Naturally, the underdog (Urkel) eventually wins after holding his own ... and others who were threatened by the bully declare their intent to fight the bully after he finishes off Urkel.
The Honeymooners: Ralph inadvertently challenges a much tougher person to a boxing match.
I Dream of Jeannie: "The Strongest Man In the World".
Are You Being Served?: Captain Peacock is challenged to a boxing match, but backs out. Mr. Humphries is chosen to take his place in a wrestling match and loses. Then Mrs. Slocombe enters the ring.
Just Shoot Me!: Dennis goes out with a female boxer, but is challenged by her ex-girlfriend, also a boxer.
iCarly: the one-hour special "iFight Shelby Marx", in which Carly watches MMA fighter Shelby Marx (played by Victoria Justice) on TV and, as a joke, challenges her to a match. Shelby accepts.
Friends: "The One With The Ultimate Fighting Champion", where Monica's millionaire boyfriend wants to be the Ultimate Fighting Champion.
Wings: "Raging Bull%$%#". Joe signs up for an amateur boxing tournament, expecting to get some revenge on a childhood bully, while Brian signs up as an alternate in case Joe backs out. However, when the other fighter backs out instead, the brothers find themselves pitted against one another.
The George Lopez Show: George signs Max up for a children's boxing class in order to boost Max's self-esteem. Laila Ali (daughter of Muhammad Ali) guest stars.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Will gets beat up by Nicky's female boxing instructor.
The Mighty Boosh episode 'Killeroo' has Howard Moon duking it out against a face eating kangaroo. Being an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, Howard is thoroughly outclassed, and only prevails when Vince crushes the kangaroo's balls. Also significant in that The Boxing Episode is also The Mighty Boosh' first broadcast episode.
The Monkees: "Monkees in the Ring"
An episode of Martin has the titular character facing off in a charity boxing match with fearsome Lightning Bruiser and former welterweight/middleweight/light heavyweight champion Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns.
As mentioned in the intro quote, the third season Due South episode "Mountie and Soul" focused on boxing. Detective Kowalski is identified as not only a boxing fan, but also a layman coach for a young boxer implicated in a fellow boxer's death.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, episode 3x07, "Fight Night." Grissom investigates the death of a boxer in the ring that appears to be murder.
CSI: New York, episode 6x20, "Tales from the Undercard." In the course of the episode it's revealed that Mac (Gary Sinise) is a boxing fan, which helps him identify the victim as a boxer due to certain injuries.
NCIS, episode 6x18, "Knockout." Director Vance uses the NCIS team to investigate the death of a boxer who is an old friend of the director's. We find out that, in his youth, Vance himself was a boxer, and his wife first met him at one of his matches.
NUMB3RS, episode 3x16, "Contenders." One of David's old friends is involved in the death of an MMA fighter (the boxing of the present).
Law & Order: Criminal Intent, episode 7x18, "Ten Count." Logan and Wheeler investigate the death of an amateur boxer, who happens to be the brother of a young man (also a boxer) who Logan used to mentor.
MacGyver, episode 7x10, "Split Decision." Earl Dent, an ex-con from previous episodes, enlists MacGyver's help as a boxing coach so he can get back in the ring and maintain custody of his daughter. (MacGyver, being the good little Technical Pacifist that he is, is deeply unenthusiastic about this, but it is for a good cause.)
The A-Team, episode 3x16, "Champ!" Face wants to invest a substantial portion of the Team's money in a boxer named Billy Marquette, but in the process they discover that a local sleaze named Sonny Monroe is rigging boxing matches. B.A. goes undercover as an unbeatable boxer so the team can take Monroe down.
Bones and Booth fly to Las Vegas to investigate a murder, and discover a women's underground MMA fighting ring.
Ally McBeal, with kickboxing.
Battlestar Galactica uses this as a premise to let the main characters beat the tar out of one another over recent goings on midway through season 3.
- Justified in that real military culture has been known to adopt boxing in the past, but played straight in that Roslin turns out to be a fan and knows a thing or two about it. With the Admiral, the Colonel, the CAG and most of the crew and pilots present and engaged, one wonders what might have happened had the Cylons decided to attack right then...*
  Truth in Television or not, is it really good for morale to have the ranking staff officer beat up by an enlisted man in front of the troops?
NYPD Blue a couple of times: Martinez decides to enter the Smoker and gets trained by Lieutenant Fancy (who beats him up pretty good during a friendly sparring match); several seasons later Detective Clark enters it too.
Star Trek: Voyager had a late-season episode centering around Chakotay's recreational boxing, which apparently was causing brain damage—but actually something else was going on that explained his weird visions and blackouts. Also another episode where Seven and Tuvok are kidnapped to become gladiators.
Quantum Leap, "The Right Hand of God": Sam leaps into a boxer "owned" by a sisterhood of nuns. The episode reveals Al as something of a boxing aficionado, but it doesn't do Sam much good since holograms make poor boxing trainers.
Mission: Impossible has the "The Contenders" as a set of two episodes. The plot revolves around eliminating a mobsters, and Barney takes the role of a another boxer, having been revealed to have been a successful one before.
Lois and Clark had "Requiem for a Superhero", which featured the Daily Planet investigating why several boxers appeared to have strength beyond mortal men. They're cyborgs.
Leverage - "The Tap-Out Job", where Eliot poses as a MMA fighter as part of the heist, and the plot eventually leads to a (sort of) Forced Prize Fight.
Somewhat justified in Highlander: The Series, since Mac seems to obsessively study every form of combat he comes across (with good reason).
Arguably Babylon 5's worst episode, "TKO", has an old friend of Garibaldi's (a boxer named Walker Smith) come back to Babylon 5 for an alien boxing match. This is also remarkable as one of the only episodes of the show in which almost nothing is important to the overall arc of the show.
A boxer (Ben Murphy) arrives on Fantasy Island to clobber an opponant who beat him in the past.
The Incredible Hulk got this one out of the way. In the first single-hour episode, "The Final Round", David befriends a boxer who is unwittingly delivering drugs and then is supposed to suffer a fatal heart attack during a fight. This was the first instance of Banner being conveniently being knocked out so that he doesn't Hulk out until later.
The Twilight Zone TOS episodes "The Big Tall Wish" and "Steel".
Cold Case: "Yo Adrian", doubling as a Whole Plot Reference to Rocky.
In a Remington Steele episode a baby is found in a boxer's locker and he asks the Steele agency for help. Hijinx ensue as the boxer readies for a match and Remington is revealed to be a very competent boxer.
Friday The 13th: The Series had "Shadow Boxer", which naturally revolved around a pair of cursed boxing gloves.
Due South episode "Mountie and Soul".
Knight Rider ep 4.16 "The Redemption of a Champion," in the original series.
Human Target - "Corner Man", where Chance poses as a star prize-fighter, to con a billionaire who's threatening his client into betting everything against him in a championship tournament.
The Rockford Files had an episode where Jim and Rocky had invested in some boxer, and there was a fair amount of corruption surrounding his manager.
Little Mosque on the Prairie: "Gloves Will Keep Us Together" revolves around a boxing match between Amaar and Rev. Thorne.
Part of the Moonlighting episode "Symphony In Knocked Flat".
- In which they attempt to knock out a punch drunk fighter in his locker room. After they hit him on the head with a weight he suddenly becomes (temporarily) lucid, saying things like "I intend to aggressively attack my opponent at the outset to achieve a sudden victory." Then they hit him again.
Time Trax featured a temporal fugitive from 3 centuries in the future who uses his superior physical development to win bouts.
Life on Mars investigated a boxing crime which led to Gene being implicated as the perpetrator.
The 1960s Batman show had an episode where Batman had to fight The Riddler with a silly accent in a boxing match because... uh... I forget why.
The Power Rangers Zeo episode "Challenges", in which Tommy had to out-box Prince Sprocket's monster Punchabunch at both normal and giant size to free Adam. Tommy had already been established to have boxing skills in the previous seasons, and his special Zord this season was the Red Battlezord, which has boxing-glove fists (and Gatling laser cannons for cuffs, but those aren't used in the boxing match).
- Super Sentai has "hero gets beaten up by boxing monster and must learn boxing" as one of its stock plots.
A couple of Three Stooges shorts. One early example is "Punch Drunks", when Curly becomes a boxer because of his Unstoppable Rage when he hears the tune "Pop Goes the Weasel".
For a 1890s take, see the third episode of Murdoch Mysteries.
The Wayans Bros..: Marlon is taunted by Hector Macho Camacho who challanges him to a boxing match.
Diagnosis: Murder: "Standing Eight Count". A boxer whom Dr. Jack Stewart idolized was framed for the murder of the boxer who beat him and turned down a rematch due to health issues.
An episode of Punky Brewster had boxing champion Marvin Hagler showing Punky how to defend herself after a bully at school beats her up.
Criminal Minds had "The Bittersweet Science". A borderline psychotic wannabee boxer starts beating to death anyone who mocks him ("So I'm a punching bag, huh?!")

Literature

A Tom Swift book features Tom facing off against an evil kickboxing contender and developing an exoskeleton that allows him to face the kickboxer in the ring.
The Ellery Queen stories Mind Over Matter and A Matter of Seconds involve boxing.

Video Games

The Set Up, a Vice case in L.A. Noire revolves around an over-the-hill boxer refusing to drop a fight. Cole and Earle then have to hunt him down.
One of the jobs the Three Stooges can take in the PC/console game is boxing, which functions like the "Punch Drunks" example from above: Larry has to get a radio playing the "Pop Goes the Weasel" tune before the fight ends.
[[Video Game/Bully]] has a boss fight that starts in the boxing ring. Outside the storyline, it's still fun, earns cash, and unlocks a Save Point.

Web Video

Four Blokes Without Telly: Episode 2.

Western Animation

The Simpsons season eight episode "The Homer They Fall," in which Moe coaches Homer into becoming a boxer after Homer is found to have an anomaly that allows him to take multiple hits without falling.
On King of the Hill, Luanne takes up boxing to prove to men that she's not a sex object. Unfortunately, the boxing she takes up is foxy boxing and one of George Foreman's daughters challenges her to a real match to prove that she's untalented at the sport.
In Family Guy episode "Baby, You Knock Me Out", Lois becomes a boxer.
On The Flintstones, Fred takes a challenge to stay one round with the champ for prize money.
Looney Tunes, "Rabbit Punch": Bugs Bunny has to take on the heavyweight champ after heckling him.
- Also there's "To Duck or Not to Duck": With Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd.
- As well as Country Mouse (1935), When I Yoo Hoo (1936), Porky And Daffy (1938), and Count Me Out (1939).
Paramount's Modern Madcap stars Jeepers and Creepers had a cartoon called "Busy Buddies," in which Creepers had to make some money to pay an outstanding IRS debt. He unwillingly becomes a boxer offering a $1000 cash prize. Thanks to Jeepers, he wins and pays off his immediate debt (but now he owes for the money he just won).
In an episode of The Oblongs the mother quits smoking and become an adrenaline junkie. She tries boxing but is so vicious and dangerous she keeps moving to deeper and deeper sub-basements pummeling more and more people - including (by mistake) the "simple kid who fills the soda machines".