In This Corner: 4 Amazing Songs Focused on the Sport of Boxing

Boxing doesn’t have quite the same hold on the American public as it once did. But there’s something cinematic, resonant, even tragic about the sport. Those qualities can act as catnip to great songwriters.

Perhaps that’s why it’s not too surprising that many of the finest songwriters around have touched on the sport in their songs. Here are four boxing songs particularly worthy of mention.

“The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkel

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel went out on top with their 1970 swan song Bridge Over Troubled Water. While the title track is justifiably celebrated, “The Boxer” features just as memorable a recording (the cavernous drums, that moaning guitar sound). And we think it’s even a little better as a song. Simon doesn’t deal much with the sweet science in the early portions of the song. Instead, he tells the tale of a spiritual vagabond in desperate search of a home in the big city. But in the final verse, Simon uncorks the main metaphor from out of nowhere with the memorable phrase “In the clearing stands a boxer.” His point is that the resilience of the battered pugilist is something we all need to show at times.

“Hurricane” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan hadn’t really written issue-oriented songs in quite some time when he sunk his teeth into “Hurricane”. But telling the story of imprisoned former boxing champ Rubin Carter fit well with his sudden desire to indulge in long, twisting narratives. There are several of those on his 1976 Desire that he co-wrote with Jacques Levy. On “Hurricane”, Dylan and Levy do a marvelous job of juggling the many important facets of the story. That includes the crime and the questionable path to justice that landed Carter in his cell. “Hurricane” also touches on Carter’s boxing career. It paints him as somewhat of a reluctant brawler whose talent for punching didn’t reflect his soft-spoken personality.

“Boom Boom Mancini” by Warren Zevon

Back when boxing still dominated sports pages around the world, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini emerged as one of its biggest stars. He won some highly publicized title fights along the way. One of them was his victory over Bobby Chacon, which Warren Zevon references in “Boom Boom Mancini”. The song arrived on Zevon’s 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene. Three-quarters of R.E.M. backed Zevon on the album, which was a comeback of sorts for the mercurial artist. In typically unflinching Zevon fashion, he addresses, along with career highlights, Mancini’s match against Duk Koo Kim, which resulted in the South Korean fighter’s death.

“The Hitter” by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen has made a habit throughout his career of taking occasional detours away from his rock and roll records with the E Street Band. He usually takes these opportunities to go in more of a folk-based direction. The Boss did just that on the 2005 album Devils & Dust, which includes “The Hitter”. The boxing done by the narrator is more the unsanctioned, bare-knuckle kind. That scenario places this series of events at a much earlier point in history when such brawls were commonplace. He gives unflinching details of these gory donnybrooks throughout the song. But those details aren’t quite as harrowing as the narrator’s rough reunion with his mother.

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rainforest Fund)