Boxing is a sport with a long and storied history.
It’s not really possible to prove whether prehistoric cultures engaged in sports akin to boxing, although since playfighting for fun is a common sight among many animals, it’s not impossible to imagine.
The Ancient Greeks believed that boxing was a sport played by the gods atop Mount Olympus, and the Romans altered the sport with leather hand coverings and more violent rules.
Today, boxing is a much less brutal and much more sporting discipline. Most boxing takes place under Queensberry Rules, named after the Marquess of Queensberry, who refined many of the sport’s more bloody aspects and made it into the gentlemanly pursuit many know it as today.
Just like many sports, boxing is well-represented in the video game sphere, with major publishers and unknowns alike lending their expertise to digital representations of the sport.
Here are the games that put the “box” in “Xbox One”. Pickings are unfortunately a bit slim on Microsoft’s old faithful, but there’s plenty of old favourites and newcomers alike to choose from.
EA Sports UFC 4
- Audience: T
- Release date: Jul 31, 2020
EA Sports UFC 4 represents the last game EA released in the UFC series for the Xbox One, so if you want a mixed martial arts gaming experience on your last-gen Xbox, this is the best place to go for it.
Here, you’ll find over 200 unique “characters” (read: real-life fighters) to choose from, and since boxing is one of the disciplines practised by those fighters, we’re including this in our list.
The career mode tasks you with creating a custom fighter and taking them all the way to the top of the UFC ladder in order to become the GOAT (that’s “greatest of all time”, just in case you weren’t aware).
Even if you’re not interested in the single-player game, though, there are still plenty of modes and features to check out in multiplayer, including an improved control scheme and robust online offering.
To put it simply, EA Sports UFC 4 is the best mixed martial arts game you can play on Xbox One, and that means it’s also one of the best boxing experiences on the console.
Pato Box
- Audience: T
- Release date: February 17, 2023
This is a boxing game with a difference, and that difference is a healthy dose of surrealism.
In Pato Box, you play as, uh, an extremely muscular duck. You’re on a quest to get revenge against an evil corporation, and to do so, you must fight your way through several colourful henchmen.
We say “colourful”, but that’s in the strictly metaphorical sense of the word, because Pato Box is rendered entirely in black and white, making this a rather stylish Tarantino-inspired experience.
If you’re familiar with Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! series, then you’ve already experienced the basis of the core gameplay loop that makes up Pato Box.
You must duck (no pun intended) and weave around your opponent’s blows, dodging them nimbly and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
While there’s not a huge amount of gameplay on offer in Pato Box, what is there is rich and detailed, and the graphic novel art style ties it all together with panache.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions
- Audience: T
- Release date: Sep 10, 2021
If you’re going to build a roster of the best boxing games out there right now, then including a game that’s largely based around one of the most famous boxing movie franchises ever is probably a no-brainer, right?
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is, as the name suggests, based on the Rocky franchise, as well as the Creed sub-series it birthed back in 2015.
As such, you’ll find lots of iconic fighters on this game’s title card, including Rocky himself, as well as Adonis Creed, memorably played by Michael B. Jordan in the movies.
You can also play as characters like Clubber Lang, Ivan and Viktor Drago, and Apollo Creed, and the game supports local multiplayer, so you can set up whatever kind of fantasy fight you like.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions may not be the most complex boxing game on the market, but it’s certainly one of the most accessible and approachable, so give it a look if you want to convert some non-boxing fans!
Street Fighter V
- Audience: T
- Release date: Feb 14, 2020
One of Street Fighter’s most famous fighters is arguably Balrog, who’s a technically-minded boxer in the series. As such, we don’t have any compunctions about including Street Fighter on this list (as you’ll continue to see later!).
Street Fighter V doesn’t quite hit the highs of its predecessor (more on which anon), but it does have some excellent fighting mechanics and a great roster to get to grips with.
That roster naturally includes the aforementioned Balrog, at least assuming that you grab one of the editions that includes him, as well as Dhalsim, Ken, and M. Bison, plus many more.
Street Fighter’s classic one-on-one gameplay is refined and tweaked over the previous instalment, bringing more technicality and impact to fights and ensuring that Street Fighter V remains an excellent way to settle arguments.
If you’re coming from Street Fighter 6 and expecting a similarly robust single-player mode, then you’re sadly going to be disappointed, but for sheer fighting nous, Street Fighter V is hard to beat.
Punch Club
- Audience: RPG
- Release date: January 8, 2016
Moving over to the simulation side of things, we have Lazy Bear and tinyBuild’s management sim Punch Club. Players take control of a nameless boxer whose father is killed a la Daredevil when he’s a youngster.
Said boxer pledges to continue his training and become the best boxer ever, while simultaneously trying to discover who was behind his father’s murder.
Players hoping for a super-accurate depiction of the boxing world will be disappointed by Punch Club, as it’s all cartoony aesthetics and thinly-veiled pop culture references, but those who are willing to experiment a little with the wackier side of things will find a surprisingly deep and complex management sim.
Your boxer’s hunger, tiredness and boredom must all be taken care of, while training is also important; your stats dictate not only how effectively you fight in the ring, but what style you use and what skills you can utilise during bouts, too. A sideways choice, but a good one nonetheless.
Tekken 7
- Audience: T
- Release date: August 9, 2016
With Tekken 8 on the horizon (at time of writing, at least), now is a good time to look back at the excellent achievement in fighting game history that is Tekken 7.
One of the fastest and most fluid fighters available on Xbox One, Tekken 7 also boasts a character whose primary discipline is boxing, which means we can include it on this list without shame. Hurrah!
Steve Fox is just one of the excellent characters available on the Tekken 7 roster, with other combatants including Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, and Bryan Fury lining up to take on all comers.
The game also has a rather in-depth story mode, and while some of the cutscene writing arguably leaves rather a lot to be desired, that shouldn’t put you off checking out this excellent fighting game.
There are even an extensive suite of online multiplayer modes available, so when you decide you’ve mastered Tekken 7’s controls, be sure to take your game online and challenge some of the best players around.
World Championship Boxing Manager 2
- Audience: T
- Release date: January 17, 2023
As the name suggests, this isn’t going to be the game for you if you like to get stuck into the action. Rather, World Championship Boxing Manager 2 is a simulation, so it’s more about stats and numbers than it is about bone-crunching blows.
That’s not to say there are no boxing thrills to be had here, however; quite the contrary. This is a sequel to the 1991 retro cult classic World Championship Boxing Manager, and developer Mega Cat says it’s captured “the essence of the original” while expanding on it as well.
That means deeper gameplay systems, better visuals, and new characters, with both fantasy characters and real-life boxers available to battle.
The list of real fighters includes legends like Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson, as well, so these aren’t just thinly-veiled allegories to genuine boxers; they’re the real deal, and they’re right here waiting for you.
If you’ve ever dreamt about playing the manager that takes a boxer to stardom rather than the boxer themselves, then this is very much the game for you, and it’s available on Xbox One as well, making it one of the best Xbox One boxing games you can play right now.
Fight Night Champion
- Audience: Mature
- Release date: Mar 1, 2011
Okay, this one’s an Xbox 360 game, but believe it or not we’ve pretty much exhausted the Xbox One’s native library of boxing titles (if you don’t count previous entries in the EA Sports UFC series).
Luckily, Fight Night Champion still very much holds up today, so it’s well worth a revisit for boxing aficionados.
Gameplay-wise, Fight Night Champion heavily emphasises the more violent and brutal aspects of the sport, with the much-touted “Full Spectrum Punch Control” allowing players to throw punches using the right stick.
This system is just as intuitive and satisfying as it is in EA’s Skate series, so each bout in Fight Night Champion provides a cathartic and realistic boxing experience.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a surprisingly robust and well-written story mode with characters and plot arcs and everything. Give it a try, even though it’s getting on in years now. You won’t be disappointed.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
- Audience: T
- Release date: Jun 28, 2011
Oh, don’t look at us like that. Super Street Fighter IV has a character in it who fights using boxing (Dudley, we love you, even though you’re a raging stereotype), so we’re counting it.
Besides, it’s a great game, and if you’ve never played an entry in this franchise, then it’s an excellent place to start, especially for boxing fans.
The Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV tweaks the characters and adds some new EX moves, but it’s really just a distillation of the technical one-on-one fighting gameplay you know and love (or, if you’re new to the series, that you’ll grow to know and love).
Dudley the boxer is just one of the many reasons to pick up this colourful, explosive and lovingly-crafted fighting game. Others include a full roster that boasts many other fan favourites, including Ryu, Ken, Blanka, and more.
You’ll also find extra playable characters in the form of two twins from Street Fighter 3, as well as boss characters that were previously only available as opponents against which to test your skill.
Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1
- Audience: T
- Release date: Mar 31, 2017
Want to take a trip back to where it all began? Atari’s Flashback Classics Volume 1 collection contains arguably the progenitor of all the games we’ve already mentioned on this list.
It is perhaps retro games that we should thank for the inspiration of games today. RealSports Boxing may look dated now, but it packed a real punch when it was first released back in 1987, showing off (then) realistic graphics and (then) deep gameplay.
If you want to know where Fight Night and Ready 2 Rumble got their chops from, then look no further than RealSports Boxing.
Into the bargain, you’re also getting a huge collection of other Atari favourites, including Centipede, Pong, Combat and many, many more.
RealSports Boxing may be long in the tooth, but it’s still got the potential for a knockout evening, especially if you invite a friend over to enjoy its retro charms.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a fair few boxing games available for the Xbox One, and there should be a little something to whet everyone’s appetite.
Enterprising developers have even managed to create boxing-themed RPGs and simulations, so it’s not just about brawn; there’s a healthy dose of brainy boxing titles for those who like the more cerebral aspects of the sport.
All of these games should also be playable on next-gen hardware thanks to the magic of backwards compatibility, too, so if you’ve recently upgraded to an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you should still be able to enjoy these titles.
