A pugilistic career.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Bhima in pugilistic encounters, in speed, or in skill.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 Books 1, 2 and 3] Reference

His gestures, even in love, are never less than pugilistic.    From Wordnik.com.  [Absolute Friends]

Randy Forbes then emitted a pugilistic rhetorical ultimatum.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bruce Wilson: "C Street House" Group Members Push Christian Nationalist House Resolution] Reference

It has a fighting chance in an increasingly pugilistic market.    From Wordnik.com.  [2011 Suzuki Kizashi SE reviewed by Warren Brown] Reference

He characterized his rapport with the Katis brothers as pugilistic.    From Wordnik.com.  [Moby's Porno Ahab] Reference

The pugilistic cowboy, rare fellow among his kind, went to the floor.    From Wordnik.com.  [Trail's End] Reference

SHENKMAN: Yes, I think pugnacious in this case really means pugilistic.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Dec 28, 2006] Reference

And there followed him "big John Brown," of mathematical and pugilistic renown.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Australian Lassie] Reference

The seared bodies of his techs, drawn into the pugilistic attitude by the flames.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Coffin Dancer]

A person not used to pugilistic gestures does not instantly recover from this surprise.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 25, November, 1859] Reference

Pinter, anyway, approached me in what I took to be a pugilistic manner and told me who he was.    From Wordnik.com.  [Gripes of Wrath: James Wolcott] Reference

In fact, those princes were no match for Bhima in pugilistic encounters, in speed, or in skill.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose Adi Parva] Reference

The first regular took a nineteenth-century pugilistic stance and said, “Put up your dukes.”.    From Wordnik.com.  [Drowned Hopes]

Britain; and not so barbarous as a pugilistic combat between two hired brutes called prize-fighters.    From Wordnik.com.  [Trade and Travel in the Far East or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, Singapore, Australia and China.] Reference

He believes his pugilistic skills, and his appeal to blue-collar voters, are too important not to be used.    From Wordnik.com.  [John Rentoul today puts Trevor Kavanagh and myself in the...] Reference

The pugilistic dynasty came in with the House of Brunswick, and has held divided empire with it ever since.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864] Reference

After the Williams cancellation and the easy and yet mandatory defenses, Pavlik's pugilistic stock tumbled.    From Wordnik.com.  [Gordon Marino: Kelly Pavlik Versus Sergio Martinez: An Exciting Middleweight Title Matchup this Saturday in Atlantic City] Reference

He was very pugilistic and had taken an active part in ballot-box frauds in the several elections just previous.    From Wordnik.com.  [California, 1849-1913; or, the rambling sketches and experiences of sixty-four years' residence in that state] Reference

But when he comes into the charmed circle of his home, he is neither reckless nor pugilistic, but a downright gentleman.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No 3, September, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy.] Reference

That was Ernest Hemingway's tenderly pugilistic estimate of Marlene Dietrich, who died last week at 90 at her home in Paris.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Death Of A Goddess] Reference

The parallels are comically human: the small but pugilistic cactus, the cheerfully plump one, the tall but diffident wraith.    From Wordnik.com.  [Martin Creed: Down Over Up; Richard Wright: The Stairwell Project; Joan Mitchell] Reference

I wonder, do other developed nations carry on the political process in quite the same pugilistic and frankly puerile manner?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister?] Reference

The very tombs of the dead, sacred in all lands, became a slaughter ground of the butcher, and an arena for pugilistic contests.    From Wordnik.com.  [The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852] Reference

Winifred had to laugh at the thought of the handsome, immaculate young man before her in a pugilistic encounter with Mr. Mercer.    From Wordnik.com.  [The First Soprano] Reference

The Republicans are pugilistic and cunning, but it's precisely that rock-'em-sock-'em attitude that allowed them to win the thing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bush vs. Gore, Take 2] Reference

It was a plain case that I should get badly and ridiculously whipped, if I attempted to cope with him in any pugilistic encounter.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862] Reference

Tannen is shocked that nanny Stella tells Dad his pugilistic 8-year-old is becoming a "juvenile delinquent" while the kid listens in.    From Wordnik.com.  [DOES NANNY KNOW BEST?] Reference

From this some have imagined that he was of a pugilistic turn, whereas he knew nothing of the 'science,' and only affected the knowledge in jest.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy] Reference

The political pugilistic scrimmage which recently took place in the House of Congress so completely coincides with the views and propensities of the.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 9, 1841] Reference

Hubert Kittle, aviator, former police officer, one-time contender for the heavyweight pugilistic championship of the navy, dare-devil and adventurer.    From Wordnik.com.  [Spring Street A Story of Los Angeles] Reference

Indeed he had only deserted the pugilistic for the pedestrian profession because the former was such a poor means of livelihood, closely watched as its members were by the police.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dr. Jolliffe's Boys] Reference