50 YEARS OF ROCKY
master of disaster!” Heavyweight contender Tommy Morrison, co-star of Rocky V , said that he’d been a member of the Stallone Fan Club as a child and couldn’t believe he had been cast in one of the films. (He would win the vacant WBO title against George Foreman in 1993). The music, too, has left its impact; the only eight-division champion in boxing, Manny Pacquiao, famously used “Eye of the Tiger” from Rocky III as his entrance song. Tyson Fury even staged an extravagant homage to Creed in his 2019 fight against Tom Schwarz, donning the iconic stars-and-stripes costume and emerging to James Brown’s “Living in America.” It ran even deeper for two-weight world titleholder Vinny Pazienza. He said of the first Rocky movie: “It influenced my life more than anything in the world.” The teenaged Paz, a fellow Italian-American who had dabbled in the sport as a young child, left the cinema that day certain that he would
become a boxer. And he did. But in 1991, after a car crash left him with a broken neck, he was told he would never fight again. Pazienza ignored it and trained avidly. Within 13 months, he had defeated Luis Santana. He would go on to beat former welterweight champ Lloyd Honeyghan, a faded Roberto Duran and undefeated super middleweight Dana Rosenblatt. In 1995, he unsuccessfully challenged Roy Jones Jr., the best fighter in the world at the time. Even Stallone couldn’t have predicted his film’s ripple effect going this far. In the original movie, Rocky’s shot at Apollo Creed’s title – and his ability to go the distance, even in defeat – represents a moral victory of the human spirit. Beyond the sport itself, it was an expression of grit and determination
when you’ve felt you’ve run out of chances. Stallone sums it up best in the sixth outing of the franchise, Rocky Balboa (2006), when he tells his son: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” This had a healing impact on the public consciousness in the era it emerged. In 1976, the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, beset by unemployment and crumbling cities; there was a sense of listlessness and uncertainty. Meanwhile, the heavyweight division was in its golden age: giants strode the scene, from Ali to Foreman to Frazier. The Ali of the 1960s, with his courageous change of name, his Black nationalist politics and his refusal to serve in Vietnam, was a magnet for controversy. In the ’70s, his popularity exploded, but he remained a clear representation for some lingering aspects of the nation’s turmoil. The fact of the matter was that for decades, the great heavyweights were Black. The
Rocky and Apollo Creed would go from rivals to friends in the sequels.
Ali vs. Wepner struck a chord with Stallone, breathing life into Rocky.
That unknown actor, Sylvester Stallone, would go on to write and star in a boxing flick that premiered on November 22, 1976, and became one of the great low-budget triumphs of Hollywood history. Made for approximately $1 million and earning nearly $225 million on release, it swept the Academy Award nominations (winning three) and brought movie audiences to their feet en masse, cheering and yelling. With its earworm of a soundtrack, its tender romantic story and its supporting cast of lovable schmoes and heroes, it’s still a surefire classic. And with its many sequels over the years – from the downbeat charm of the original to the overblown, hyper- ’80s bravado of Rocky IV – it has had a close, important and sometimes love- hate relationship with the real world of boxing. Muhammad Ali, for instance, liked the Rocky films and playfully shared the stage with Stallone at the 1977 Academy Awards. Equally, he pulled no punches about critiquing them for getting details
ridden package.” Collins was writing in February 1986, just as Rocky IV was hitting theaters. Many boxing commentators would express frustration with the lack of realism in the series, but they all shared something else: appreciation. Collins goes on to mention Stallone’s many personal investments in boxing, including managerial interest in fighters, and writes: “Boxing has benefited, both directly and indirectly, from Rocky’s unparalleled popularity. The Rocky series has, in a way, made it more socially acceptable to support boxing.” The fact is, Rocky was always good for boxing. And the spiritual truth – if not the realism – of the Rocky franchise has appealed to generations of fighters. Carl Weathers, who played Ali’s avatar Apollo Creed in the movies, recalled being dumbstruck when The Greatest approached him on the street one day, jokingly squaring up to him and yelling his character’s name excitedly. Ali even said he wished he’d come up with Creed’s taunt: “I’m the
wrong. “A real fighter never lifts weights. But it looks good in the movies,” he told renowned film critic Roger Ebert. In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, veteran boxing writer Budd Schulberg remarked of the films: “The fight scenes are ridiculously over the top, and if you train as Rocky does, by punching sides of frozen beef, you’ll break your hands. But fistic truths don’t apply to this one. The sometimes silly Sylvester touches a nerve. He’s every nebbish’s dream of glory.” Later, reporter Pete Ehrmann – in a celebration of the film – wrote: “Rocky became the only fighter in the history of boxing who actually got better-looking the more he got beat up.” And finally, from Nigel Collins, esteemed former editor-in-chief of The Ring: “The general public must, by and large, prefer their fistic thrills wrapped up in a predictable, cliche-
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