Long before Hugh Jackman battled robot boxers in *Real Steel* (2011), the concept had already appeared on screen: a 1963 episode of *The Twilight Zone* called "Steel", based on a short story by science-fiction writer Richard Matheson. The episode starred Lee Marvin as washed-up boxer Tim "Steel" Kelly, who steps into the ring himself after his robot fighter breaks down, in a world where human boxing has been banned in favour of machines. The piece traces this overlooked link between a classic television instalment and a modern blockbuster, highlighting Matheson's enduring influence on science fiction.

Set in a near-future 1974, both Matheson's original story and the TV adaptation depict boxing outlawed for humans, a premise inspired by real controversy in 1963 after two boxers, Benny Paret and Davey Moore, died from ring injuries. Matheson, who also wrote the more celebrated *Twilight Zone* episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", penned "Steel" as the second episode of the show's fifth and final season. In the story, Kelly's ageing robot "Battling Maxo" breaks down before a fight, forcing Kelly to don the robot's disguise and fight a superior model himself, resulting in an ending narrated by Rod Serling as a tribute to human courage despite inevitable defeat by machinery.