Mr Calzaghe is a 2015 documentary that follows the career of legendary Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe. It charts his journey through his highly touted amateur career, the jump to turning pro, challenges with repeated injuries all the way through to breaking through to popularity in America and his retirement – undefeated with a record of 46-0.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Mr Calzaghe (2015)
Okay so let’s start off by admitting that this one technically isn’t a film review. FightWorld, a Netflix docu-series following Frank Grillo – ‘actor and life long fight enthusiast’ – as he travels the world learning about local fight cultures. The series sees him in Mexico, Thailand, Myanmar, Senegal and Israel looking at the significance of their combat sports.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – FightWorld (2018)
Welcome to the Fight Quality Ultimate Guide to Boxing Gloves, updated for 2021.
When we originally wrote the first version of our Ultimate Guide back in 2016 we wanted to bring you the absolute best resource for everything you could possibly want to know about boxing gloves. Since then the guide has undergone several updates, reflecting the changes in the industry, technology and brands.
Continue reading The Ultimate Guide To Boxing Gloves (Updated 2021)
Massage Guns. We’re sure you’ve seen them all over Instagram recently, with fighters working over their legs or shoulders with a machine that looks like a weird combo between a hairdryer and pneumatic drill. They rapidly pulse in and out, drumming against the muscle and causing a rippling effect to provide a type of percussive massage that’s meant to aid recovery or prepare you for a hard session. But are they just another fitness fad with limited evidence supporting their use (like an altitude training mask) or is there real science backing up their use?
Continue reading Massage guns; What are they, and should fighters be using them?
Katie (2018) is a documentary following the life of Katie Taylor, charting her journey from having to pretend to be a boy to get fights (Ireland wouldn’t sanction female boxing, so she would put her name down as ‘K. Talyor’ and walk out to the ring with her headgear on) to become Ireland’s greatest sportswoman.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Katie (2018)
Combat sports are an ever-changing landscape of fighters, with new names popping up constantly. All fighters have heart, and all fighters have talent, yet of all the fighters who have stepped up over the years, there are some who stick in our minds, who changed the way we think about the sports we love, and who are truly inspirational to today’s generation of martial artists.
Continue reading Inspirational Fighters – Damien Trainor
Combat sports are an ever-changing landscape of fighters, with new names popping up constantly. All fighters have heart, and all fighters have talent, yet of all the fighters who have stepped up over the years, there are some who stick in our minds, who changed the way we think about the sports we love, and who are truly inspirational to today’s generation of martial artists.
Continue reading Inspirational Fighters – Saenchai
In the final installment of the original Rocky series we find the former title holder, now in his late fifties, widowed and running a restaurant – living in the past and struggling to maintain relationships with family and friends. Lured back into the ring to face the reigning heavyweight champ, who finds himself unpopular despite being undefeated, in a charity match. Whilst rebuilding bridges and rediscovering himself, can an aging, arthritic Rocky get back under the lights and prove himself one more time?
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Rocky Balboa (2006)
We all know that learning the proper fancy techniques are the most fun – who doesn’t love learning to throw spinning shit? But, as many times as you hear it, basics are what win fights, so basics should be 90% or more of what you train and use.
Continue reading Five Basic Kickboxing Combos To Use In Sparring
Nicknames and fighters have always gone together, with the best ones becoming more well known that the fighters actual names; like ‘Money’ Mayweather or ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Some people go as intimidating as possible with their nicknames, some are boastful, a fair few are funny and quite a lot are terrible. Here at Fight Quality we’ve put together a list of our favourite badass fighter nicknames for you to enjoy:
Recently released on Netflix, Conor McGregor: Notorious is the ‘fly on the wall’ style biographical film about the life of the Notorious Irishman, following his career from fighting in small shows to taking on Nate Diaz in the UFC. Featuring training footage, behind the scenes locker room footage and clips from his fights and interviews it charts the remarkable rise of the most well known UFC fighter to date.
Continue reading Film Review – Conor McGregor: Notorious (2017)
Jimmy McCabe (Johnny Harris) was a champion youth boxer with top prospects whose life took a turn from a worse. At rock bottom and seeking solace in the bottom of a bottle he decides to return to the only skill he’s got.
We often feel that BJJ doesn’t get the credit it’s due when it comes to MMA – a lot of casual fans don’t appreciate the sheer technical ability that goes into submissions and how difficult it can be to secure the tap, especially when the person you’re trying to control is trying to punch you in the face.
A Prayer Before Dawn is based on the 2011 autobiography of Billy Moore, a Liverpudlian boxer who moves to Thailand to escape a history of drug abuse and crime.
Continue reading Film Review – A Prayer Before Dawn (2017)
Diverting slightly from our normal film reviews we aren’t covering a fictional film, we’re reviewing the documentary ‘Dawg Fight’.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Dawg Fight (2015)
This chapter in the Rocky saga (you can find the previous Rocky films we’ve reviewed here) sees The Italian Stallion take a different role. Suffering with a brain injury from the beating he took at the hands of Ivan Drago in the last film Rocky has to officially retire from fighting, but finding his money has been squandered he reopens Mickey’s gym and starts training fighters.
The next instalment of the Rocky franchise sees the champ still holding the belt and a new challenger rising – Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Rocky IV (1985)
Set 18 months after the events of Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer: Retaliation sees Kurt Sloane fighting MMA, having vowed to never return to Thailand. Of course this doesn’t work out, and he finds himself kidnapped and imprisoned near Bangkok.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018)
Rocky 3 finds the champ at the top of his game, with 10 successful defences of his title behind him he’s fighting exhibitions against wrestlers, starring in TV ads and unveiling statues of himself.
Continue reading Fight Quality Film Review – Rocky III (1982)
We recently wrote about Why Heavy Bags Are Useful for Boxing, MMA, Muay Thai and other combat sports, so we decided it would be a good time to cover the many different types of punch bag which exist, and why most of them have slightly different purposes.
Continue reading What Types of Punch Bags Are There?