Rocky 3 is back on TV screens tonight as the legend of the Philadelphia boxes continues to pack a punch decades later. Stallone took more than one pummelling himself throughout the franchise, admitting that when he was rushed to hospital after Lundgren flattened him in Rocky 4, the nurses thought he might not make it. Yet, the Hollywood hard man actually reckoned that the worst pummelling came in the previous movie and not in a boxing match.
The Rocky and Rambo legend has just revealed a terrifying moment filming a scene in Rocky III when his opponent hurled him across the room and then charged him like “an enraged bull” and smashed his shin into Stallone’s collarbone, leaving the star fearing that his bone would be sticking out of his chest.
If you think this sounds like someone ‘Hulking out’ or rather like a wrestling move, you would be right.
In the movie, Rocky accepts a stunt match against wrester ‘Thunderlips’, played with ferocious attack on screen by real-life legend Hulk Hogan.
Stallone added: “I remember a violent move where he threw me into the corner, charged across the ring like an ENRAGED bull and leaped so amazingly high above me that his shin-bone actually came down (like a) giant tree on my collarbone, and I tumbled to the floor.
“I was afraid to look at my shoulder for about 10 minutes… I said ‘Don’t roll me over, don’t move me,’ because I was sure there was bone protruding through my upper chest! Of course there wasn’t, but I have never felt such a mind-numbing pain from a massive hit before or since that day!”
“Believe it or not when he jumped into the audience to fight with the stuntmen, three of them had to be treated at the hospital.
“Great guy, great friend, his presence made the film very, very special. HULK, if you’re reading this, it was a privilege to be mangled by such a gentleman.”
The big screen tough guys bonded over their bruises and have remained great friends ever since.