Sylvester Stallone joined boxers such as Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez & Kosta Tszyu as they were inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame last month at the annual ceremony in Canastota, New York.
I read the recent opinion poll on this in Boxing News with the majority of the fighters asked stating that it was wrong for an actor, someone who has never been in a genuine fight in his life, to be receiving this honour. It's hard not to have some sympathy with this view; they've trained, made sacrifices & taken punches for years, often for little or no reward & then a Hollywood millionaire waltzes in to take all the media attention (well maybe not "all" the attention, Tyson was there too but the media circus that follows him is another story)
However Stallone was inducted into the observer category (commentators, journalists, writers) & as the screen writer for the Rocky series this seems justified. There may have been better films about boxing made (such as Raging Bull, The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart or the criminally neglected Body & Soul from 1947) but it's hard to think of any sporting film that has had the same cultural impact. The term "a real Rocky story" is applied to so many different sports & subjects, the theme music is used constantly over sporting montages & is familiar whether you've ever seen the films or not. The iconic scene of Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been copied & parodied frequently and a statue now sits there in tribute.
Most importantly it has inspired generations of kids to take up boxing & training throughout the world & for that reason alone Stallone deserves his ring.
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