Boxing icon Sylvester Stallone put his brother Frank on the canvas with a real shot when filming the successful third installment of the Rocky franchise.
A Hollywood great and Hall of Famer, Stallone has always shared fascinating footage from filming his most remarkable saga.
At one time, Stallone was sparring with his brother Frank [who appeared in the films as a singer and opponent] during takes for Rocky III in 1982.
Stallone, wearing his shorts from the first fight with Clubber Lang, fended off an absolute onslaught from Frank before dropping his sibling with a tidy body shot.
Sylvester Stallone spars brother and others filming Rocky III
Below, Stallone tells the story in his own words.
“[This is] Old footage of me Boxing my brother Frank [The Tank] Stallone. [It happened during a] few angry rounds between the fight scenes while filming Rocky III.
“As usual, things always get carried away with brothers,” the Cobra and Copland star pointed out.
In addition, he continued: “I’ve sparred with Frank many, many times. Without exception, it always turns out that one of us ends up throwing a cheap shot. Usually, it’s me, and the battle is on!
“I used to hate sparring Frank because he’s always coming at me with an assortment of non-stop left hooks. He’s relentless. He has a great jaw, which I tried to smash as often as possible.
“I remember when I was training for Rocky III, we were at the gym for hours working with Mr. T – training very hard every day. However, when I finished working with Mr. T, which was always a painful affair because he was so damn strong, he would train on the speed bag or heavy bag.
Rounds
“Frank and I would take on all volunteers who wanted to get into the ring and say they boxed with Rocky Balboa.
“Usually, it was guys that worked at the studio, like carpenters, big teamsters, construction workers, etc. Our door was always open for anyone wanting to spar a few rounds.
“That’s how we would get in shape real fast. Some days, we drive home feeling very good; others, we would crawl home feeling very bad.
“The most fun was to spar with much larger men, sometimes being outweighed by over one hundred pounds. They hit very hard, but because of their size, they would also miss quite a bit after throwing heavy punches and not hitting anything.
“It drains the big man very, very quickly. Unfortunately, exhaustion usually sets in for them after one round. A man can barely lift his arms when repeatedly hammered by a couple of well-placed body shots.
“Now it was our turn to dish it out…and boy did we. That’s what I would call a great era of painful fun.”