Sylvester Stallone Shares ‘Terrible Memories’ of Sparring Heavyweight Boxer
"Rocky II" came out in June 1979.
Sylvester Stallone opened up on his recollection while filming the sequel of his famous series, “Rocky.”
Stallone, who is known for portraying Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, shares insight into what was it like to spar with one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
Hollywood legend Stallone joined Jonathan Ross and guests via Zoom from New York. He spoke of sparring with boxing legends for his “Rocky” movie franchise over the years.
“I sparred with [Muhammad] Ali, and Joe Frazier gave me eleven stitches. That was in about two seconds,” Stallone told Ross.
“I was thinking about using him [Frazier] instead of Mr. T in Rocky III. I said, ‘Let me use a real fighter.’ That’s not a good idea.”
Stallone also gloved up with hard-hitting heavyweight Earnie Shavers.
“Earnie Shavers literally almost beat me to death without trying. [He was] wearing 20-ounce gloves. Imagine if he was angry!” added Stallone.
The two-time world heavyweight champ, George Foreman famously rated Shavers as the hardest-hitting top-division operator of all time. Shavers died last in September.