Per Tom Archdeacon from Dayton Daily News:
Link: http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2010/12/08/the_rocky_debate_im_in_his_cor.html

It was announced that Stallone — who wrote the script for Rocky and then played the part of the underdog Philadelphia heavyweight in six films — will join Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez Kosta Tszyu and eight others in the 2011 induction class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.

Does he belong or not?

Note to Mods... This is serious business because it covers both sports and entertainment.

Typically is it only boxers who are inducted, or can promoters and others involved in boxing be inducted as well? I really don't know anything about the boxing HOF. If it's not just fighters that are inducted then he definitely belongs. He's done as much as anyone over the past 20+ years to promote the sport.

Should Charlie Sheen be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Can we get the Loony Toons in the Basketball Hall of Fame?

Wild thing, you make my butt sting.

Well, here it comes, Parkman. The ol' number 1, the Terminator. You get a piece, you can rename it.


Hell yes, Sheen for MLB HOF.

In all seriousness, his work on the Rocky series and The Contender certainly gave boxing a lot of recognition and gave it a place in pop culture. For that you could argue he's contributed as much to boxing as a lot of people

ELLL OOOOH FUCKING ELLLL!

this is the funniest thing i've heard in awhile.

will ferrel will be canonized when they elect him to the NASCAR HOF and the NBA HOF.

hell i bet if you ask 50 people to name 5 boxers at least 15 of them would put rocky(movie version) in there.

He belongs, boxing isn't as popular as Baseball or Basketball or Football. When you look at the recognition the Rocky films have brought the sport it's pretty incredible and I think he deserves the HOF induction.

They just called me and told me I'm being inducted into the Cattleman's HOF because I eat alot of Wendy's Singles w/ Cheese...oh the Dairy HOF is inducting me too for the same reason.

krambman;592446 wrote:Typically is it only boxers who are inducted, or can promoters and others involved in boxing be inducted as well?

Others can be inducted, in this same class is Tyson, Chavez, Tszyu, Joe Cortez (referee) and "Nacho" Beristain (trainer).

It's not like Rocky Balboa is being inducted. Stallone is being inducted for his contributions for the sport. I believe every hall of fame does this is some capacity and doesn't induct just players.

Y-Town Steelhound;592795 wrote:...I believe every hall of fame does this is some capacity and doesn't induct just players.

uh no...you are wrong. (as usual)

I Wear Pants;592698 wrote:He belongs, boxing isn't as popular as Baseball or Basketball or Football. When you look at the recognition the Rocky films have brought the sport it's pretty incredible and I think he deserves the HOF induction.

I think the fact that boxing is less popular makes this move even more dumb. It almost makes the HOF a joke. I take it less serious if Stallone is inducted.

Why does it make it a joke? He brought an imense amount of interest and recognition to the sport of boxing. Seems like the type of thing you induct people into the Hall of Fame for.

Tiernan;592885 wrote:uh no...you are wrong. (as usual)

Football HOF-inducts coaches, executives, commentators, and other contributers to the game

Basketball HOF-inducts coaches, executives, referees, and other contributers to the game

Baseball HOF-inducts managers, umpires, and other contributers to the game

Hockey HOF-inducts on-ice officials, coaches, general managers, commentators, team owners and others who have helped build the game.

World Golf HOF-has a "lifetime achievement" category through which anyone who has made a major contribution to the organization or promotion of the sport may be selected

International Tennis HOF-inducts those who "contributed to the game"



Should I keep going, or should I stop at owned your ass? (as usual)

Forrest Gump will be inducted into the ping pong hof next week.

Y-Town Steelhound;592795 wrote:It's not like Rocky Balboa is being inducted. Stallone is being inducted for his contributions for the sport. I believe every hall of fame does this is some capacity and doesn't induct just players.

Exactly. They aren't inducting the fictional character of Rocky Balboa. They are inducting the man that wrote the screenplays to arguably the most popular boxing movies ever. I think you could argue that he did more for boxing than some people already in the HOF.

If Bert Sugar is in the hall for being a writer and historian of the sport, and W.C. Heinz can be inducted for writing a novel about a boxer, there is no reason why Sly can't get inducted.

I Wear Pants;592956 wrote:Why does it make it a joke? He brought an imense amount of interest and recognition to the sport of boxing. Seems like the type of thing you induct people into the Hall of Fame for.

Just my opinion. I don't think a movie start should be admitted for making a boxing movie.

WebFire;593017 wrote:Just my opinion. I don't think a movie start should be admitted for making a boxing movie.

Aaaaand.....you completely missed the point.

WebFire;593017 wrote:Just my opinion. I don't think a movie start should be admitted for making a boxing movie.

Stallone didn't just act in the films, he wrote the screenplays and directed them all except for the first. He also did the boxing choreography for the first three films.

I disgree about all the recognition brought to the sport. Boxing was quite popular and well-known when the first Rocky movies were coming out. The sport is a shell of itself for a variety of reasons. Mike Tyson did far more for a struggling sport than Rocky ever did. I think it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise - any casual fan who would have tuned into real boxing because of Rocky would have been like "WTF, this is nothing like I expected".

I'd argue that the main motivation for this might be to attract attention and visitors to the Boxing HOF. I confess I didn't know one existed before this article. I suspect it doesn't draw a lot of tourists. But put a Rocky display in there and I bet interest increases 10-fold. Heck, I'll admit if I was in the are I might be curious to learn some trivia and see some stuff that helps me reminisce about those movies and childhood.

gut;593167 wrote:I disgree about all the recognition brought to the sport. Boxing was quite popular and well-known when the first Rocky movies were coming out. The sport is a shell of itself for a variety of reasons. Mike Tyson did far more for a struggling sport than Rocky ever did. I think it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise - any casual fan who would have tuned into real boxing because of Rocky would have been like "WTF, this is nothing like I expected".

I'd argue that the main motivation for this might be to attract attention and visitors to the Boxing HOF. I confess I didn't know one existed before this article. I suspect it doesn't draw a lot of tourists. But put a Rocky display in there and I bet interest increases 10-fold. Heck, I'll admit if I was in the are I might be curious to learn some trivia and see some stuff that helps me reminisce about those movies and childhood.

What, you mean like rape a girl in the prime of his career, get sent to jail, leaving the sport reeling and robbed of its crown jewel, then during his comeback do something so unbelievably insane that he (along with boxing) lost all credibility? Yep, you're right.

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?

Mooney44Cards;593392 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're nuts. Muhammed Ali is and was one of the most famous and recognizeable athletes of any sport. I completely reject the notion that Rocky did anything to boost the perception and popularity of boxing, briefly at best. Did he glorify the sport? Yes, but anyone would quickly see that's not what the sport is like. You're forgetting what a big deal the Ali-Frazier, Ali-Foreman, Foreman-Frazier.... Boxing was already a global sport, and look no further than the Olympics. Coverage of Tyson in his prime was ridiculous, and it had nothing to do with Rocky and everything to do with Tyson just destroying all the scrubs he faced. Heck, Tyson was the anti-Rocky, Tyson was Goliath.

gut;593427 wrote:You're nuts. Muhammed Ali is and was one of the most famous and recognizeable athletes of any sport. I completely reject the notion that Rocky did anything to boost the perception and popularity of boxing, briefly at best. Did he glorify the sport? Yes, but anyone would quickly see that's not what the sport is like. You're forgetting what a big deal the Ali-Frazier, Ali-Foreman, Foreman-Frazier.... Boxing was already a global sport, and look no further than the Olympics. Coverage of Tyson in his prime was ridiculous, and it had nothing to do with Rocky and everything to do with Tyson just destroying all the scrubs he faced. Heck, Tyson was the anti-Rocky, Tyson was Goliath.

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. Are the Rocky movies more surreal than real? Sure. Are they far from accurate depictions of boxing? Yes. But does a whole generation of people identify their exposure to boxing with 5 (I guess six now) different Rocky movies playing on tv once a month? You better believe it.

I'm not downplaying how great Tyson was, quite the contrary, but as much as his prime was unbelievable, it made his fall hurt all the more for the entire sport. Casual sports fans identify boxing with Rocky a lot more than they do any boxer since Ali. Thats all I'm saying. Yet you want to argue about boxers and fights that took place before the first Rocky movie came out (1976). We get it, Ali and Frazier and Foreman did more for the sport than Sly Stallone, but that doesn't mean that Sly Stallone didn't do a lot more for boxing than any boxer since (except MAYBE Tyson, but even then, he hurt the sport almost as much as he helped it).