And the winner is... Rocky. Here's why.

Sports film = Rocky… Right? Simple. There is no academic logic to why Rocky sits above any of these films – certainly not in terms of
directorial prowess, script, acting, cinematography or special effects…
But, like the Italian Stallion himself, Rocky’s got heart, it’s got guts
and one of the best finishing punches ever. As a film, it’s a wide
diameter haymaker to the jaw – one we all saw coming, but just couldn’t avoid.

And then there’s that music… Not only the best sports film score ever, but one of the best soundtracks ever. Full stop. If one single passage could sum up the emotion of a sport, then Bill Conti’s signature fanfare line does just that. Just think about it… How synonymous is that music with that sport?

And right there is the power of this film; Rocky doesn’t deal in
shilly-shally concepts like reality, it uses fanfare and big broad brash brushstrokes to paint a billboard-sized picture of what it means to be a boxer; to train and to put your body on the line for money... It’s a falsely romantic notion of all these ideas, but if Rocky isn’t falsely romantic, it’s nothing at all.

Whilst Raging Bull pulls no punches, Rocky pulls virtually all of them - yet it still stirs all the right emotions in the viewer, provides
something that we all crave in a sports film, that’s hardwired into us.
We want the hero to triumph, we want him to win against all the odds, we want to see bad men vanquished, we want to see redemption and friendship and all the good things. And Rocky delivers this by the bucketload, with a broad, dumb grin and a squash ball in its pocket.