Y-Town Steelhound;593021 wrote:Aaaaand.....you completely missed the point.

What point?

Mooney44Cards;593479 wrote:I was born in 85, I never saw Ali fight, nor Tyson in his prime. So my first big time boxing memories are Tyson insanely chewing on another man's flesh.

You probably could have stopped there. For you, boxing was already on the decline from your earliest memories, so Rocky didn't float a sinking ship. Your perception may be otherwise, but the sport was already on the decline and in disarray (no great heavyweights, its premier division, and no unified champion) when Tyson came on the scene. When he went to prison popularity really started to fall off a cliff because there were no compelling champions. Holyfield was a pretty good champion, but it wasn't the same and he didn't have that great rivalry. His fight with Tyson was epic and had been eagerly anticipated for years - Rocky had nothing to do with that.

Like I said, boxing was a very popular international sport long before Rocky. Heck, two of the greatest fights of all-time, The Thrilla in Manilla and The Rumble in the Jungle took place outside the US. Rocky could not and did not save boxing in any shape or form. Don't confuse identifying your exposure with boxing from Rocky with being a fan and the sports popularity increasing as a result. Now, maybe you'd have a point if the sport was compelling enough to hold the interest of an otherwise fleeting curiosity from a movie, but that really wasn't the case.

gut;593529 wrote:You probably could have stopped there. For you, boxing was already on the decline from your earliest memories, so Rocky didn't float a sinking ship. Your perception may be otherwise, but the sport was already on the decline and in disarray (no great heavyweights, its premier division, and no unified champion) when Tyson came on the scene. When he went to prison popularity really started to fall off a cliff because there were no compelling champions. Holyfield was a pretty good champion, but it wasn't the same and he didn't have that great rivalry. His fight with Tyson was epic and had been eagerly anticipated for years - Rocky had nothing to do with that.

Like I said, boxing was a very popular international sport long before Rocky. Heck, two of the greatest fights of all-time, The Thrilla in Manilla and The Rumble in the Jungle took place outside the US. Rocky could not and did not save boxing in any shape or form. Don't confuse identifying your exposure with boxing from Rocky with being a fan and the sports popularity increasing as a result. Now, maybe you'd have a point if the sport was compelling enough to hold the interest of an otherwise fleeting curiosity from a movie, but that really wasn't the case.

Who said he did? Who said that Rocky had anything to do with ACTUAL BOXING MATCHES that took place anytime, ever, in the history of the sport? No one. Quit making shit up to make your argument sound better. Did Sly Stallone help the sport of boxing in any way? Did he expose it to more fans? Did he immortalize it in the annals of Hollywood? Like it was already said, he didn't help the sport any more or less than, say, Bert Sugar who is no more than a boxing historian but a person that deserves to be there.

Mooney44Cards;593564 wrote:Who said he did? Who said that Rocky had anything to do with ACTUAL BOXING MATCHES that took place anytime, ever, in the history of the sport? No one. Quit making shit up to make your argument sound better. Did Sly Stallone help the sport of boxing in any way? Did he expose it to more fans? Did he immortalize it in the annals of Hollywood? Like it was already said, he didn't help the sport any more or less than, say, Bert Sugar who is no more than a boxing historian but a person that deserves to be there.

LOL

Mooney44Cards;593564 wrote: A better question might be, how much worse shape would boxing be in if it WEREN'T for Sly Stallone? Where would the boxing consciousness lie in the general public if not for the pop culture and folk hero Rocky Balboa?

You asked the question and I answered it = nill. Rocky didn't do anything more for boxing than The Natural did for baseball or Hoosiers did for Indiana highschool basketball - and Hoosiers is a great example, it is what it is in part because of what Indiana basketball is, not the other way around. Both great movies and neither made me the least bit more interested to go watch an actual game. Boxing was more popular, and global, than before or after Rocky. That isn't debateable, there isn't a credible case with actual evidence that could be made otherwise. It's just dumb shit people say trying to sound insightful - boxing had a very rich history long before Rocky. You take Top Gun, for example, and there is a real surge in people joining the military for some time.

Rocky is a movie that had, at best, a fleeting impact on people's action to actually watch boxing, something that is sort of a prerequisite to claim it impacted the sport in any way (whereas the historian does, by the way, through creating a record of real events and dramatizing them in a manner for people to appreciate the rich, and real, history....i.e look at what NFL Films does vs., say, The Longest Yard).

Clubber Lang has been asked to give Stallone's introduction speech.

Mooney, you were born in 85, so you should probably stfu as you dont even know what youre talking about or anything about the time. So please just be quiet and leave this topic with the other people that were already made to look stupid by saying dumb things.

I'm watching Cliffhanger right now, when is Stallone going to get his invite into the rock climbing hall of fame?

Ender Wiggin;594302 wrote:Mooney, you were born in 85, so you should probably stfu as you dont even know what youre talking about or anything about the time. So please just be quiet and leave this topic with the other people that were already made to look stupid by saying dumb things.

The fact that Mooney was born in 85...and still finds Rocky relevant shows even more that the movie did a lot for the sport. I'm willing to bet, that if you were to ask a casual boxing fan to name 10 boxers, many of them are going to say Rocky somewhere in that list. They will recognize that character before they recognize Winky Wright or Roy Jones Jr. or the Klitschko brothers.

Bottom line is this. Prior to Sly...25 guys have been inducted into the HOF in the Observer section of the HOF. Whether they were sports writers, historians, or novelists...they had nothing more to do with the sport other than writing about it or creating cartoons about it. Sly is being inducted as the writer of the screenplay of probably the most famous boxing series ever is no different. Seems like Sly fits into this section of the HOF pretty well. So I'm not sure why this is even a point of contention. Now if you want to argue that the HOF should not have an "observer" section...that is a different topic.

gut;593609 wrote:LOL


You asked the question and I answered it = nill. Rocky didn't do anything more for boxing than The Natural did for baseball or Hoosiers did for Indiana highschool basketball - and Hoosiers is a great example, it is what it is in part because of what Indiana basketball is, not the other way around. Both great movies and neither made me the least bit more interested to go watch an actual game. Boxing was more popular, and global, than before or after Rocky. That isn't debateable, there isn't a credible case with actual evidence that could be made otherwise. It's just dumb shit people say trying to sound insightful - boxing had a very rich history long before Rocky. You take Top Gun, for example, and there is a real surge in people joining the military for some time.

Rocky is a movie that had, at best, a fleeting impact on people's action to actually watch boxing, something that is sort of a prerequisite to claim it impacted the sport in any way (whereas the historian does, by the way, through creating a record of real events and dramatizing them in a manner for people to appreciate the rich, and real, history....i.e look at what NFL Films does vs., say, The Longest Yard).

This is a terrible terrible argument, you should be ashamed of yourself for even typing these words out.

I don't even know what your argument is, are you trying to say Sylvester Stallone shouldn't be inducted into the HOF? If so you suck at arguing it.

Yama Hama;594928 wrote:This is a terrible terrible argument, you should be ashamed of yourself for even typing these words out.

I don't even know what your argument is, are you trying to say Sylvester Stallone shouldn't be inducted into the HOF? If so you suck at arguing it.

No, I didn't say that. Sorry if a simple argument is too hard for you to follow. All I said was Rocky didn't really do anything for boxing. Heck, it's even the first line or two of the post you quoted. Thanks for playing.

Does Rocky belong in the boxing HOF? I don't know, doesn't really matter to me. I do think it's a bit insulting to people who made their careers out of boxing and contributed more to the sport and don't get recognized. Think of guys in the NFL who've waited and hope to get into tCanton and then imagine if they put Burt Reynolds in for The Longest Yard.

But again, Burt Reynolds' character from that film isn't one of the first things people think of when you say "football". When you say boxing there is a large subset of people who immediately think Rocky or think Rocky right after Ali, Foreman, Tyson, etc. Rocky is far more impactful to people's ideas and conceptions of boxing than just about any other sports film is to the sport featured in it.

gut;593609 wrote: Rocky didn't do anything more for boxing than The Natural did for baseball or Hoosiers did for Indiana highschool basketball - and Hoosiers is a great example, it is what it is in part because of what Indiana basketball is, not the other way around. Both great movies and neither made me the least bit more interested to go watch an actual game. Boxing was more popular, and global, than before or after Rocky. That isn't debateable, there isn't a credible case with actual evidence that could be made otherwise. It's just dumb shit people say trying to sound insightful - boxing had a very rich history long before Rocky. You take Top Gun, for example, and there is a real surge in people joining the military for some time.

Rocky is a movie that had, at best, a fleeting impact on people's action to actually watch boxing, something that is sort of a prerequisite to claim it impacted the sport in any way (whereas the historian does, by the way, through creating a record of real events and dramatizing them in a manner for people to appreciate the rich, and real, history....i.e look at what NFL Films does vs., say, The Longest Yard).

A fleeting impact? Isn't there a freaking statue of Rocky STILL up in Philadelphia? You know...Philadelphia, the place where Joe Frazier calls home. There's no Joe Frazier statue in Philadelphia.

gut;594994 wrote:No, I didn't say that. Sorry if a simple argument is too hard for you to follow. All I said was Rocky didn't really do anything for boxing. Heck, it's even the first line or two of the post you quoted. Thanks for playing.

Does Rocky belong in the boxing HOF? I don't know, doesn't really matter to me. I do think it's a bit insulting to people who made their careers out of boxing and contributed more to the sport and don't get recognized. Think of guys in the NFL who've waited and hope to get into tCanton and then imagine if they put Burt Reynolds in for The Longest Yard.

How is it anymore insulting having Sylvester Stallone (NOT Rocky...again, they aren't inducting the character...they are inducting the REAL PERSON that wrote the screenplay for the movies) in the HOF, but it's not insulting to have Tad Dorgan...a man who made comic strips that featured boxing?

The category that Sly is being inducted into has been around for years. There are 25 other guys that have been inducted under the observer category. Sly fits the criteria...and clearly their decision worked because how many of us would have been talking about the International Boxing HOF this much if Sly wasn't being inducted. Again, if you don't like the category...that's a different story. But to call Sly's induction "insulting" is a bit ridiculous, IMO.

I see alot of flip comments on here....
I think he should because he actually wrote the script for Rocky.....This was one of the all time greatest movies ever made ..a low budget film at that.....We aint talking about one of those way off the radar sports spoof filmes .......Ask yourself this did he or did he not put a huge positive spotlight on this sport?
Not everbody who gets into the football HOF played or coached in the NFL but they did contribute to the sport in a signifigant way........He truely cast a positive shadow on this sport and gave many dreamers the desire to get into boxing....Chew on that before anymore Forest Gump jokes ......