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00:03Hello again, I'm Jim Lampley with Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman live from the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas
00:09where we anticipate one of the most outrageous and compelling events in boxing history.
00:47Cutting a fight, really cutting a fight is a very labor-intensive and emotionally draining experience.
00:54If there's a manual to be printed on how to make a fight film perfect, it should say Sylvester Stallone.
01:00Text by Sylvester Stallone because he wrote the manual. I don't care what anyone says, that's a fact.
01:05Each of the little fight sequences have a dramatic value in the movie. So he wrote down as a writer
01:11what the dramatic value was for each of those instances. Who's winning at what point and where Rocky is and
01:18what's Rocky's both his physical journey through that fight and his emotional journey through that fight.
01:23Two extra punches will destroy, to me, a tempo. It just takes the point where, ah, and I made that
01:29mistake. In other words, I let things go on too long in rounds and I see them now go, oh
01:33boy, okay. Then again, it was the 80s. It was a very excessive time. It was big hair, you know,
01:40bands, the music. Okay, too much punching. But by today's standards, it was overkill. So I try to be very,
01:47very realistic in this fight.
01:52The punches are something that I wanted to get right this time. And the other Rockies are okay, but they're
01:59too thuddy, too loud. We spent a lot of time recording actual punches, real sounds.
02:09Before we would use, we would layer in shotgun blasts, broken bottles, chains rattling, a baseball bat hitting wet leather,
02:16believe it or not, and just crush it into a sound.
02:18This is being layered, layered with true sounds. So when I'm hitting the meat, I'm hitting the meat.
02:29The speed at which it's delivered, the champion's punches, no question about it, have a higher register.
02:36They're coming faster, they're not as penetrating, so it's more of a bullwhip.
02:44Whereas Rockies is more ponderous, it's slower, so it'd be more of a thud. Lower register.
02:52Boom.
02:56We brought in Antonio Tarver, who played Mason Dixon in the film.
03:00Sly felt it would be a lot easier to find somebody who could really box, give them all the years
03:06of his acting experience to teach them how to act,
03:09rather than find an actor and try and get the physicality to make them box.
03:15It's not about personal hate. It's not that kind of fight. So it now takes on a whole different feel.
03:21I really didn't know how we were going to do it, but I listened to Sly, I was paying close
03:26attention to what he said, and everything he asked of me, I gave it my all, 110%.
03:31Once I got in sync and I really understood his vision, you know, it was a natural thing.
03:35One, two, three, I guess the hook.
03:37One, two, three.
03:42For a lot of reasons, Sly wanted to do all the boxing up front, primarily because then he's in the
03:47best shape because he's just finished the training routine, and once he starts shooting, then he no longer can train
03:52with the same intensity, the same schedule.
03:55A lot of people know that Sly's extremely fit and in shape, but this is a different kind of training
04:01for this.
04:01He gave himself, I would say, at least six months training to do this picture. It was a gradual buildup.
04:08He has a certain look that he wanted to make it believable in this fight. I believe when you see
04:13the picture, you'll see the incredible shape he's in.
04:15Sly had his shirt on through all the boxing choreography, and the first time he took his shirt off was
04:20when we were shooting The Way In in Vegas.
04:22I was actually standing at the monitor, and Nicole, the hair girl, was right next to me.
04:27The minute he took his robe off for the first time, she went, and I was like, oh my God,
04:33look how cut he is.
04:35One thing about Rocky we know for sure, this guy's showing up in shape.
04:39He had to go through some real hard nights, lifting weights, and running, and preparing, and just really having the
04:45mindset, and then having to go to the gym and work.
04:48I wish I could take his heart, and his will, and his intestinal fortitude, and his desire to be great
04:53in this, and bottle it, and give it to some of the fighters I've trained throughout the years.
04:58I'd have ten world champions by now. He amazed me.
05:01It's unbelievable how hard he works, and just his energy, and that inspired me in a lot of ways.
05:07You know, it got me thinking about going heavyweight, so you know, I really feel good about myself right now.
05:12My energy level is up, and I think I can conquer the world, and thanks for Rocky Balboa giving me
05:16that inspiration to really look at my career, and say, you know, I've got a couple more years at this.
05:22We're at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
05:26So then you have to find the venue to do the boxing.
05:28And originally, we searched Los Angeles for potential venues that were, one, available, two, large enough, and three, wanted us.
05:38Sly was aware that HBO was shooting a pay-per-view match in Las Vegas, and he thought, wouldn't it
05:44be great if we could piggyback on that,
05:46and get some cameras in there, and shoot the crowd of 11,000 people, which we would never be able
05:50to afford to do.
05:51Here is a special attraction before our main event.
05:55Here is your chance to be part of the next Rocky movie, Rocky Balboa.
05:59The light heavyweight champion of the world has moved up.
06:03Antonio Tarver will play the role of the heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon, and will now face the former champ.
06:09So right now, let's get loud.
06:11Entering the ring, let's get the Rocky champ going.
06:14Here it is, the former two-time heavyweight champion of the world, Rocky Balboa!
06:23The veteran of the boys here for one more.
06:27Rocky's an off-the-board underdog, and they don't care at all.
06:31We had always planned to shoot boxing for nine days, and Mandalay Bay only had six days available.
06:38So we were suddenly, we were then shooting a lot quicker.
06:40His professional record, 57 victories, including 54 knockouts, with 23 defeats and one draw.
06:48We use HBO. It becomes an HBO event, which I thought would be kind of unique.
06:53So we don't create a fictional arena.
06:56We borrow their blueprint and insert Rocky into a realistic situation.
07:01He wants him to shoot the fight in high def.
07:03It was actually very confusing at first.
07:04The traditional way of shooting boxing, I mean, he basically, you know, mastered in the first five.
07:10You'll never see that in a boxing movie, ever.
07:12It's always a low angle, you know what I mean?
07:14Then when we got there, and we started shooting, and we started seeing some of the footage,
07:19what I realized was that it just lent this amazing realism to the boxing footage.
07:25It's quite astounding, and I think it was a very bold and courageous decision to go that way.
07:30I thought, jeez, the camera angles are always the same in fight films.
07:35I said, can you imagine if the camera is right there?
07:38And people are going to say, is that real? Is that a trick? Is that CGI?
07:40No.
07:41It's what HBO does. We set the cameras up at four spots, and we let it wing.
07:46It has the look and feel of a pay-per-view fight, which all fight fans,
07:49when they subscribe to HBO or the showtime, you see that fight.
07:53That's the look Sly wanted.
07:55He's very familiar with HD. His house is all set up with HD equipment,
07:59so that's what he watches every day.
08:01He was like, you know, I want the drama and the dialogue to look one way,
08:04but I want the fight to look like I see it at my house.
08:08And we put this HD package together for him, and it really worked.
08:12For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world,
08:19ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble!
08:26But the Vegas thing was great, working with Larry Merchant
08:29and the guys that I'm used to working with all the time.
08:31Literally, the deals were closed the night before we were about to shoot,
08:34so right up to the last moment, we were negotiating that.
08:37And then that gets put to bed, and then we're starting to shoot
08:40in a venue that is incredibly busy.
08:44And we had to fit into their plan, and we were guests,
08:47and we had to find the best way to make that work.
08:50And we're shooting right up against live events,
08:52live weigh-in, the live press conference.
08:55And we're shooting portions of it, and then we're using our own audience
08:58and stepping in right after to take advantage of the sets
09:00that they already had set up in the real venue.
09:02The crowd is going to go crazy, so you've got to be fast down here.
09:06Sure.
09:06And this make-up literally has to go on in 10 seconds.
09:09Yeah.
09:1010 seconds.
09:11It was really great.
09:12The fans were involved, and they acted as if they were witnessing a real fight.
09:15We stole the show from Jermaine Taylor and Bernard Hopkins, unfortunately.
09:19I mean, the people said if they could have gotten as much action
09:22from that fight as our fight, I mean, they could have did
09:25five, 600,000 pay-per-view buys, but it wasn't to be.
09:28I mean, it was Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Tarver night.
09:32And it's a monstrous, right back then.
09:34I'm proud to say that every punch in the movie that you see that's a hit's a hit.
09:39And if it's a miss, we don't put a sound behind it to try to make it a hit.
09:43Not only did he say, I'm not afraid to get hit,
09:45not only did he not say that, he said, please, I want you to hit me.
09:49The heavyweight champion of the world doesn't like getting hit.
09:53The fake former heavyweight champion of the world enjoys getting punched in the face.
10:01All right, now that's a push.
10:03Okay.
10:03That was acting then.
10:06That was all acting.
10:11He won't keep his head still.
10:12Watch this.
10:14Did you like that?
10:15Yeah, that was up.
10:17Yeah, he didn't like that one.
10:19No, I'm cool.
10:20He got that little one.
10:21Go ahead.
10:23I'm afraid to hit you.
10:24Go ahead, man.
10:25All right, here we go.
10:25The slip is.
10:26Just have your distance.
10:28So you're turning that over.
10:30You're turning that shit over right there.
10:32You're turning that shit over right there.
10:36I don't want to be on that.
10:38I don't get this opportunity to punch professionals that often.
10:42His physicality, the way he was able to move in the ring and hit along with Antonio Tarver,
10:49I mean, I just found it incredibly impressive that day after day, they were actually hitting
10:55each other.
10:56People are going to see, the world is going to see a real punch is being landed by the light
11:00heavyweight champ of the world, Antonio Tarver on the face of Sylvester Stallone.
11:03There's no computer graphics.
11:05There's no tricks.
11:06This was real.
11:07There were times where we had to specifically ask him during the choreography for them to lay
11:16off of each other.
11:17Put himself out there physically so that he would be there and took contact on just about
11:22every single punch you see in the movie.
11:24We asked Sly to wear a helmet because he just liked getting hit, and we started to see
11:28he was getting swollen three weeks before he was supposed to shoot.
11:31The hardest thing was getting Antonio to connect a lot and hit me because he felt bad.
11:47I told him if his face get in the way, it ain't my fault.
11:53This is wild.
11:56It looks like a speed bag against a punching bag.
11:59He doesn't try to kill me.
12:01It isn't as though everyone's throwing heart-stopping punches.
12:05They hurt.
12:08When you go see a fight, obviously you see boxes getting hit, and that's what you see in
12:12this fight.
12:12Rocky misses.
12:14There's a meat-seeking missile on the point of the chin by the champ.
12:17This is the hurt business, believe it or not, and we got some bumps and bruises along
12:20the way.
12:21Ah!
12:22Ah!
12:23Nice.
12:24Fucking nice.
12:25Nice.
12:25Here we go.
12:27Shit.
12:30Sly, how's your finger feel?
12:33Good.
12:34Not as bad as his.
12:35You guys have definitely sustained some injuries during the training?
12:38Oh, man.
12:38It's been hard work.
12:39You can't pull all the punches.
12:40So, you know, I mean, I took a few myself.
12:43I mean, he's really hard punching to the body.
12:45I felt that a lot.
12:46And I went home with a lot of ice packs.
12:48You know what I mean?
12:49Oh!
12:49There's a hard right hand and a left hand and a right bow bow bow.
12:52I can't believe how hard Sly hits.
12:54How about you?
12:55You've only taken a couple shots.
12:57I told him.
12:57He's unbelievable.
12:58I held the pads in the cushion for him also.
13:00He hits his heart.
13:02Any boxer I've ever been on.
13:10The great thing is Sly's actually getting hit.
13:13We can't miss that at all.
13:16It's phenomenal.
13:17It's really unbelievable that he's doing it.
13:18There's so many different issues that can come up.
13:20Someone gets bruised.
13:21Someone gets swollen.
13:22Now you have a continuity issue for the film.
13:24But even bigger than that, you beat on a person's body for that sustained period of time.
13:28You run the risk of serious injury.
13:29You run the risk of people fading and losing their focus and things getting sloppy.
13:35Boom!
13:36Boom!
13:37You know what I mean?
13:38So he grabs me.
13:39Spits me out.
13:41I told you.
13:42Daddy!
13:43Boom, boom, boom.
13:44Good.
13:44Huh?
13:45I'm going to be careful.
13:47I'm going to be careful.
13:50A little late, baby.
13:53You won't see like the first Rockies where, you know, you see a guy, he gets hit, but the punch
13:58never lands.
13:58You won't see that in this movie.
14:00You'll see contact.
14:01You'll see sweat flying.
14:02You'll see a lot of blood.
14:03So, you know, it's going to be as real as real can get.
14:06I thought, you know, it's the last time around, and I wanted to do something that makes people think, maybe
14:14we should not do any more boxing movies.
14:17You've got to forget this punch in the face.
14:20It's getting old.
14:22One thing I've learned from this movie is that, you know, I gave myself a three-year window, and I
14:27was going to hang up the gloves, but seeing Rocky Balboa or C.S.B.S.T.L.O.N.,
14:31who knows?
14:31I might be able to do this five, six, seven years to come.
14:46Age is nothing but a number, and when you really take care of yourself and you train hard, there's no
14:51limit to what you can do.
14:52I might be able to do this five, six, seven years to come.
15:40I might be able to do this five, six, seven years to come.
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