The film fight is a staple of all the great action movies. It can be subtle, like a dance, artistic or just contain two characters knocking seven bells out of each other. All of the good ones get our adrenaline pumping. But what are our favourite fight scenes?

Rules is rules.

1.Gunfights don’t count. In film-land they are entirely different to “The Fight Scene”.

2. It has to be a fair fight. No Arnie vs Army here. No One Man vs The World. No Army vs Army (although honourable mention to the hospital scene in Hard Boiled).

Warning:- Some of these fight clips have some violence in them. Ok, all of them have some violence in them. So if you don’t like fightin’, best miss this one out. There are a few instances of bad language as well.

Yoda vs Count Dooko (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - 2002)

We had heard that Yoda was pretty much the greatest Jedi ever, but we hadn’t seen any evidence to back this up until this. This is probably the best part of any of the prequels.

Ting vs Illegal Boxing Champ 1 and 2 (Ong Bak - 2003)

Tony Jaa’s breakthrough film has the works, and there are any number of good fight scenes to choose from. These two, back to back, have just the right mix of action and humour, and some perfect slow motion shots. The fact that there was no special effects, and no wire work in this film make the stunts all the more amazing.

Yu Shu Lien vs Jen Yu (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - 2000)

Yuen Woo Ping has been the master of fight choreography for over 30 years, and it was in Crouching Tiger… that he showed his finest work. Yes, even better than The Matrix, which he had done fight choreography for a year earlier. Ang Lee’s “Eastern”, was basically a retelling of the cowboy myth, but set in the far east, and was the first foreign language film to take $100m at the US box office. For the shooting of this scene Michelle Yeoh’s background in martial is obvious, but Ziyi Zhang (Jen) had no previous martial arts training, and relied on her background as a dancer.

Nada vs Frank (They Live - 1988)

The fight that was famously parodied on South Park. There are brawls, big brawls, and then this one, from John Carpenter’s underrated classic They Live. For those of you who haven’t seen this (and I recommend that you do) this fight is over a pair of sunglasses…

Wong Fei Hung vs Hwang Jang Lee (Drunken Master - 1978)

Jackie Chan plays a man who can only tap into his inner strength when he is drunk. I’m sure many can relate. Drunken Master was one of the first films to showcase Chan’s talents as the Buster Keaton of Kung Fu Movies, mixing comedy, slapstick and amazing martial arts to create a genre all on his own.

Dragon vs Colt (Way of the Dragon - 1972)

It is Bruce Lee against Chuck Norris. In fighting terms that is like having the 1958 Real Madrid Team play the 1990 AC Milan team.

Optimus Prime vs Megatron (Transformers: The Movie - 1986)

“One shall stand, one shall fall”. Indeed. And one film shall traumatise millions of kids by killing their hero. Michael Bay should take note, as this is how you get an audience to actually care whether your robot characters live or die. I still blame Hot Rod.

Martin Blank vs Felix La PuBelle (Grosse Point Blank - 1997)

If you can assasinate the president of Paraguay with a fork, then you can definitely take out a rival with a ball point pen.

Hin Hung vs Iron Monkey and Kei Ying (Iron Monkey - 1993)

Another Yuen Woo Ping film, and why not. So, we have a final battle, fought on top of poles, which are on fire. The film took eight years (and pressure from Quentin Tarantino) to see a US release, but in the wake of Crouching Tiger…’s success, studio execs were more willing to take a chance. Yuen Woo Ping is the man responsible for wirework in fight scenes, and revolutionised the Kung Fu film with his work on Snake and the Eagle’s Shadow and Born Invincible. His work has been seen recently in both Kill Bill films and Danny the Dog with Jet Li and Bob Hoskins.

Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull 1980)

Raging Bull is arguably Martin Scorsese’s finest work, and it is never more artistic than in his depictions of the battles between Robinson and La Motta. The fights are both beautiful and horrific, and aren’t short of religious imagery. They are also hugely claustrophobic, and as perfectly shot and soundtracked as you will find in any other film. About as close to a real fight as you will ever feel from watching a film.

Luke vs Dragline (Cool Hand Luke - 1967)

One of the few included here where our hero gets the beating. Luke refuses to lie down, despite being repeatedly knocked about by Dragline. By refusing to stay down, Luke wins the respect of his fellow inmates.

From my own recollections of when “I were a lad”, footballs and windows are two things that should remain mutually exclusive. It took me until Monday to realise that this was not the case.

I was one of the “dedicated” (read sad) few who watched the final day of the transfer window with the dedication usually reserved for Soccer Saturday’s ticker tape. Would Arsenal replace Flamini? Would Spurs find another Berbatov? Would Benitez sign a player naturally capable of playing wide? Would Davie Moyes spend any money at all, or just keep selling? Who was the player “similar to Sone Aluko” that Jimmy Calderwood wanted to bring in at Aberdeen (the answer was… Sone Aluko). The minute by minute reporting on the immenent/probable/ludicrous deals only made it more like a real life version of Hungry Hungry Hippos- how many players can you grab before the timer runs out and the transfer window slams shut?

First things first. The transfer window has never slammed shut. On Monday we were led to believe that every manager in the league was squabbling around for players with time running out, like Indiana Jones fumbling under the door for his hat. The transfer window is open for 3 months. Managers know when it is going to open, and they know when it is going to close. From the moment it opens in June, the transfer window starts to shut- slowly, deliberately and with plenty of opportunity for managers to freshen up their squads. When it comes September 1st (or 2nd as it was this year) the transfer window closes reassuringly, firmly and with minimal noise.

That is until this year. For the first time that I can remember, the echoes of deadline day are still being heard two days later. What is even more remarkable is that the biggest transfer of the day was not Berbatov, or even Robinho. It was Manchester City. The Blue side of Manchester could well be the richest club in the world thanks to their takeover by Dr Sulaiman and his Abu Dhabi United Group. They have already stated their intent to gatecrash the Premiership Quadropoly by gazumping Chelsea’s bid for Robinho- a deal Chelsea were so sure of they had already started selling shirts with his name on the back. It might be a season too early for City to Challenge for the title, but the takeover not only represents a massive opportunity for the Blues, but a worrying time for Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. What would cost be if one of them fell out of the Champions League spots? A certain League 1 club knows all about gambling on the Champions League…