Dolph Lundgren Put Sylvester Stallone to Sleep During Rocky IV Filming…
Trying to pick the best Rocky is like trying to pick your best child (After IV you stop caring). While the new Creed series starring Michael B. Jordan has reignited the character of Rocky – Sylvester Stallone won a best-supporting-actor nomination – the series provided some classic moments.
Who can forget his epic clashes with Apollo Creed or his battle with Mr. T? There’s no doubt though that one of the most iconic of Rocky villains is Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago. His infamous, “If he dies, he dies” has been repeated by many professional combat sports stars.
A story has emerged that Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone had a real life clash on set. Two fierce personalities, these stars went method with their fight scenes. There was actually so much violence, it landed Stallone in hospital.
Old-School
Stallone was inspired to make his fight scenes with Lundgren as realistic as possible after watching a real fight between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns back in 1985. While the earliest Rocky movies were great human stories, their fight scenes are a bit corny now.
Hagler v Hearns was an incredible fight. It was dubbed ‘The War’ because of the ferocity with which the two men went at each other. It only lasted 8 minutes, but it contains some of the greatest action ever seen in a ring. Watch the classic footage below, as Hagler won by KO.
Explained
In the footage below, you can watch Stallone explain exactly what happened that fateful time he told Lundgren to attack him with all he has. Now, Lundgren in the Rocky movies was an absolute specimen of human. He’s ridiculously tall and broad. He is a 3rd-degree black belt in Kyokushinkai Karate (one of the hardest hitting versions of the Japanese art) and was a European champion from 1980-81. Lundgren was also a former bodyguard to Grace Jones. Basically, he’s totally legit. This didn’t deter Stallone, who explained:
“Hey I got an idea, for the first 45 seconds, really try to knock me out, I mean go for it. Bad idea. He comes across—boom, boom! He catches me in the chest. Woah. Cut, cut cut, I am directing so I can do that. CUT CUT. He says, ‘What?’ I said, ‘What? I thought I had a car accident!”
Not Happening
Michael B. Jordan might be a great actor – heck, he played the first interesting Marvel villain since Loki – but don’t expect him to be going down the carnage-riddled route of Stallone and Lundgren. The Creed movies have shown how serious they are about being realistic. Former cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew starred in the first film, while Florian Munteanu is set to take on the role of Drago’s protege in the sequel.
It’s definitely going to be an awesome experience to see Rocky and Drago reunited on film again. The Creed series has all the ingredients to represent twenty-first-century boxing in its best light. Creed II is set to be released in the United States in November and will follow Adonis Creed training to beat the son of the man who killed his father in the boxing ring.
