“It’s impossible to hit him,” When Sylvester Stallone predicted how a fight between Rocky Balboa vs Roberto Duran would look like
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Roberto Duran sparring Sylvester Stallone (Image Courtesy Amazon Prime)
Rocky Balboa is undoubtedly one of the best on-screen fighters played by Sylvester Stallone in the history of sports drama. However, reel life and reality have a stark contrast which Stallone had to learn the hard way.
Boxing legend Roberto Duran made a cameo on the second edition of the Rocky franchise. Roberto acted as their sparring partner for Rocky on screen. A few years back in an interview, Sylvester Stallone revealed a story back from his Rocky 2 shooting days. Apparently, the actor wanted to test his boxing skill and he garnered training for the film against a real fighter like Roberto which didn’t turn out well for him.
Stallone recalled, “At first I thought this will be pretty interesting because oh you know I was a few pounds heavier, a little taller and then I realized the difference between an amateur and consummate pro, the way he can move his head just an inch it’s impossible to hit him…this man would demolish me…put its this way if it was a fight, the fight would be 11 seconds including the count.”
Roberto Duran’s professional boxing career spanned more than three decades from 1968 to 2001. During his illustrious career, he won championships in four different weight classes. He was nicknamed the ‘hand of stone’ for his incredible punching power which knocked out many opponents throughout his career.
When Mike Tyson compared Roberto Duran to the Devil
At the peak of his powers, Roberto Duran was one of the most feared men in the boxing ring. His fighting style earned him the nickname ‘el diablo’ meaning the devil by the American media. Roberto managed to inspire many boxers that came after him one of them was the legendary Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson has revealed on his podcast how he was inspired by Roberto. Speaking about his idol Mike said, “you know when I first saw Ali, I said that whom I wanted to be like, I knew I wanted to be a fighter but then say Roberto Duran and I said that’s who the fuck I want to be, a mean motherfucker people scared to look at him, the devil.”
Roberto Duran retired in 2002 after he got seriously injured in a car accident. He was named the fifth greatest fighter of the last 80 years by the ring magazine in 2002. Throughout his career, he fought in 119 fights accumulating an impressive winning 103 of them.
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“My d*** got hard,” When Mike Tyson got chills from Roberto Duran’s ‘coldest’ quote inside the ring
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)