Boxing fans are well aware that the sport has a big role in making Sylvester Stallone a big star. He is a boxing fan himself and often gives credit for his success to Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner’s 1975 match, which inspired him to make the blockbuster film ‘Rocky’. However, he had to go through a lot of difficulties to make the film.    

Sylvester Stallone once appeared on ‘The Last Show with Stephen Colbert’, where he was questioned about the challenges he encountered in persuading the funders to let him portray Rocky, and the rest of the cast as well. Colbert asked, “Did they have any doubts in you?”

Stallone said, “100%, I doubted myself, sure. Are you kidding, they said basically over our dead body. We got this character because at that time, you had a lot of young actors who were energetic, Jimmy Caan, Burt Reynolds, Ryan O’Neal, everyone fancied themselves as a fighter. And they said who is that guy with a crooked mouth.”

Sylvester Stallone Once Detailed His Experience of Sparring With a Man Who ‘Would Demolish’ Him in ‘11 Seconds’

He further added, “He looks like a heavy bag, you know. He could be used in the gym scene, you can punch him, you know, that was pretty much it. But again, it was just one of those things, and I don’t know if it could happen today because really I was not qualified, if you look on paper. It was a terrible choice they made, I just got lucky.”

Sylvester Stallone almost lost hope to make it in New York before ‘Rocky’ 

‘The Expendables’ star was struggling to make a career as an actor or screenwriter in New York back in the day. He had some small successes like ‘The Lords of Flatbush’, but that was enough to barely survive. His financial condition was so bad that he had to sell his pet dog because he was unable to feed him. 

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Stallone decided to move to California at the time, as he was losing hope. Apparently, he went to watch the fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, which urged him to write a similar script. Notably, he completed the script in just 3 days, and today the Rocky series is regarded as one of the biggest film franchises of all time.  

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