I was watching R3 today and got to thinking. Was he REALLY big enough to be in the Heavyweight division in RL boxing? He sure looked small back then. Cut, but small none the less. What are the requirements to be a heavyweight boxer and would he have met them? I can’t see him in the ring with Mike Tyson or Holyfield.
Also, what’s your favorite Rocky? Mine is 3 by a hair, mainly because I used to love Mr. T and it still chokes me up when Mick dies after Rocko gets his ass handed to him. 4 was good as well though. The first one was too boring and the fifth one was accidentally released to the theater instead of straight to video.
In professional boxing, “heavyweight” bouts usually require contestants to weigh more than 190 pounds, with no upper limit. Stallone is 5 feet 10 inches tall.
One thing I notice as a boxing fan and a lefty is that Stallone is a right-hander playing a left-handed boxer. He correctly leads with his left most of the time, but during a rapid series of punches, you can see him favoring the right hand.
Weight divisions in boxing have upper limits, but not lower limits, so anyone can fight as a heavyweight.
But that’s not what you’re asking, is it. It depends upon who the “he” is that you’re referring to. Rocky is just short of six feet and weighs in at 202 lbs. for most of his fighting career (191 lbs. for the final bout in Rocky III). Stallone is a few inches shorter and probably 15-20 lbs. less, so if he were truly a boxer, he’d likely be a light heavyweight.
In one show about Mr. T, the casting process for Rocky III was discussed. They were very concerned about the height of the actor being cast to play Clubber; thogh they didn’t say so explicitly, they were obviously concerned that someone too tall would spoil the illusion that Rocky is truly heavyweight size.
Casting actors for their relative size to create the illusion that a given character is bigger and/or smaller than the actors playing them is fairly commonplace.
I think Rocky is one of the great sports movies. Rocky 2 was a decent enough follow up, although I found the climax a bit over the top, and Rocky 3 is good entertainment, but gets away from the careful character study that characterized the first two. IMO, four was bad and five was terrible.
Light flyweight: 106 lbs/48 kg
Flyweight: 112 lbs/51 kg
Bantamweight: 119 lbs/54 kg
Featherweight: 125 lbs/57 kg
Lightweight: 132 lbs/60 kg
Light welterweight: 139 lbs/63.5 kg
Welterweight: 147 lbs/67 kg
Light middleweight: 156 lbs/71 kg
Middleweight: 165 lbs/75 kg
Light Heavyweight: 178 lbs/81 kg
Heavyweight: 201 lbs/91 kg
Super heavyweight: +201 lbs/+91 kg
Currently, there are eight major professional divisions (weight maximums):
flyweight (112 lb/50.8 kg)
bantamweight (118 lb/53.5 kg)
featherweight (126 lb/57.2 kg)
lightweight (135 lb/61.2 kg)
welterweight (147 lb/66.7 kg)
middleweight (160 lb/72.6 kg)
light heavyweight (175 lb/79.4 kg)
heavyweight (unlimited).
Walloon, that’s actually old data on pro boxing weight classes. I checked with the WBC and IBF websites and have the following:
Heavyweight (unlimited)
Cruiserweight (190lb)
Lt Heavy (175lb)
Super Middleweight (168)
Middleweight (160)
Super Welterweight (154) (AKA Junior Middleweight)
Welterweight (147)
Super Lightweight (140) (AKA Junior Welterweight)
Lightweight (135)
Super Featherweight (130) (AKA Junior …)
Featherweight (126)
Super Bantamweight (122) (AKA Junior…)
Bantamweight (118)
Super Flyweight (115) (AKA Junior…)
Flyweight (112)
Light Flyweight (108)
Minimum (105) (I never even heard of this one before) (AKA Mini-Flyweight)
So, there we have 17 weight divisions, some separated by only a substantial dinner, times 3 organizations, for a grand total of 51 “champions”.
Yay, Boxing! :rolleyes:
Anyways, I think Sly could easily have been over 190 for the first movie, and probably over 175 for all of them. At the time, I don’t think Cruiserweight was invented yet, so he really only needed to be over 175 to technically be a heavyweight. Remember, in '76, heavyweights weren’t as big as they are today, Joe Frazier only weighed a bit over 200lbs himself.