Boxing fans have gone far too long without a serious contender stepping forward in video gaming. Fight Night Champion is the last true heavyweight in the genre that Punch-Out started, setting the bar high with its weighty focus on realism over a decade ago in 2010. Developer Steel City Interactive’s presumptively named Undisputed comes in as the plucky underdog looking to knock the king off its throne, but while it is a split decision in some areas, it is clear the newcomer still needs to put in a bit more time on the speed bag before it can end this particular dispute.
To its credit, Undisputed does an excellent job of capturing a convincing simulation of what it’s like to rise through the ranks of the boxing world via its Career Mode. As soon as I started, I was impressed by the character customization options. There are dozens of hairstyles, tattoos, and wardrobe options, giving free rein to make an imposing, serious character or try and recreate real-life fighters thanks to its in-depth character model system. You can even make a wacky monstrosity, similar to the WWE 2K series, as the creation center lets you stretch out faces, give big dumbo ears, or rock a green afro akin to a chia pet.
Alongside that visual creativity, Undisputed also features various fighting styles, both from a cosmetic animation and functional gameplay standpoint. Emulate Mike Tyson by creating an offensive-mind bruiser with a Swarmer who focuses on inside power punches, or float like Muhammed Ali by using reach as an Outside Fighter who wears an opponent’s health down with speedy jabs while draining their stamina by dodging instead of blocking.
I created my character centering around defense, using The Wall archetype. While I may have sacrificed stamina and power, the benefit of an improved guard to reduce the damage of incoming blows and a boost to accuracy for landing punches was worth the trade-off. I found this worked out in the long run, but my lack of power and speed, combined with how slow Undisputed fights feel at the start of Career Mode when stats are lower, took some patience.
For my first four fights, my character’s stamina was drained after just a few punches, leading to many matches ending by decision. This is the one area in Undisputed where realism can drain my gaming stamina just as fast as my character’s. After two or three matches, I was on the ropes and wishing for a more arcade approach to fights – I really just wanted to knock a fool out for a change.
Thankfully, Undisputed’s approach to setting up each fight was enough to keep me entertained even when the fights themselves didn’t. It follows an RPG approach to negotiating and training for opponents, mirroring how the process occurs in real life. I had control over almost everything, including the challenger I selected (within reason of rankings), how much of the fight’s earnings I received, and even the amount of time I was required to spend on social media promoting the bout.
Successfully negotiating before each contest results in buffs to important features like fame, attribute improvements, and the time you have to spend training. Improving fame means you fight better opponents; Fighting better opponents results in an increase in money you receive and improved stats. You’ll need to improve your attributes before getting into these fights, so allocating resources and time is a delicate balance.
On top of that you have to juggle tasks during the weeks leading up to an event. They can be spent training to get into fight-ready shape, resting to improve stamina and ensure you’re injury-free, or going on social media to reach the required level of promotion needed to fight in the first place. Weight also plays a significant role: Spend too much time on training and resting and you can end up overweight, which would mean the fight won’t count – not only will you get less fame and money, but also risk injury for no gain.
Finally, managing the contracts of your Coach, Cutman, and Manager is also vital in Undisputed. Each staff member comes with abilities and perks that improve your fighter’s attributes, and they grow alongside you with each win. At first, I set out to keep the same manager my whole career in the hopes of forming a bond similar to Rocky and Mickey. However, the further on into my career I got, the pros of sticking with the same team started to fall too far behind the cons. Yes, I lost a few buffs when I had to start with a new coach, but with the extra ability slots – combined with the similar base stats that came alongside the better staff members – I could recruit with my higher notoriety, and that made it easy to replace the original team as Career Mode went on. Being offered increasingly meaningful benefits to kick my loyal crew to the curb made that decision more of a chin-scratcher.
Back in the ring with those improved stats allowing me to be more active, it didn’t take too many fights for me to appreciate the flow and rhythm of Undisputed’s combat. Figuring out the right combination of quick jabs and power punches and the chess match of attacking the body or the head depending on the opponent’s weaknesses and guard was very satisfying. Just like in real life, damage adds up and plays a vital role in fights.
Consistently aim for one side of the head with a solid combination of jabs or powerful hook shots, and nasty cuts or swollen eyes will appear. Not only do these affect stats like accuracy, but they can also lead to technical knockouts (TKOs), where the referee stops the fight. However, the more I played Undisputed, the more I found these mechanics lacking when directly compared to the 14-year-old Fight Night Champions.
In that game there are a handful of different types of cuts, bruises, and swelling. Between each round, there is also a cutman minigame that, when done successfully, gives an extra stat boost to the fighter’s health and wear-and-tear. Comparatively, Undisputed’s wear-down features are limited to the same three swelling, cuts, and bruises in every fight, which gets repetitive quickly. There’s also no cutman minigame or interaction between each round to break up the routine.
The lack of minigames in the lead-up to fights is also a missed opportunity. Instead of automating every training boost, adding an option to hit the speed bag or work on defensive skills manually that can be applied to in-ring action would have been a helpful way to prepare. That is a standard tutorial method in sports games like EA Sports FC 25 and NBA 2K25, so I was disappointed this wasn’t in Undisputed.
In fact, the only minigame that Undisputed does include is ridiculously hard – though to be fair, it shouldn’t be too easy to get up when someone has knocked you on your back. When your fighter is down you have to press and focus the right and left triggers to line up with green bars to make the count. The issue is the bars are located in different spots, so it’s a little like trying to rub your head and belly simultaneously to make your fingers do different things with precision. Improving stats like Heart doesn’t do anything to make this minigame any easier, either. It’s mostly a problem on higher difficulties, especially after I struggled to get up after going down twice while my opponent got to his feet after being knocked down seven times.
While the gameplay is fast and fun when fighting with better boxers, it’s not all that pretty to watch in motion, and in these ways it’s still considerably behind where the Fight Night series left off. Knockdowns and rising animations are identical each time, featuring about as much personality and variation as its commentary team. While I appreciate that Steel City Interactive got pros like Todd Grisham and Johnny Nelson to comment on fights, their descriptions of the action rarely matched what was occurring in the ring. They also had terrible memories: One moment they’d call it an even-sided round, only to make a polar-opposite statement about how my character was dominating a few seconds later as the bell rang. It sounds like they’ve taken a few too many blows to the head.
Dizzying camera angles and cornermen standing at ringside popping into the frame and blocking the fight also made for some pretty frustrating moments. While those are minor, I certainly felt my immersion slipping away when I’d get near the ropes and end up feeling like I was stuck behind a tall guy in the movie theaters mid-match.
Multiplayer is enjoyable, but be ready to run into the usual players who won’t choose anyone but the most powerful characters, Muhammad Ali and Canelo Alvarez. With nothing to balance them out online, those fights don’t have the variety they should. Your best bet is to play with friends or hope to find an opponent that wants to fight with evenly matched fighters. Otherwise, you’ll end up frustrated facing The Great One every time – which feels like the modern-day equivalent of fighting OddJob in GoldenEye.
