20 Things You Somehow Missed In Rocky
18. Carl Weathers' And Sylvester Stallone's Ironic Injuries
Reportedly, when Stallone and Weathers filmed their climactic fight, filmmakers decided to just wing it. It seems crazy, but the director allowed the two stars to improvise their boxing match beats. And it was crazy, and a disaster. Both actors complained that they were confused and the fight looked terrible.
So, in what seems like a no-brainer, director John G. Avildsen decided to have the fight choreographed. It took thirty-two pages to map out the boxing match beat by beat.
And both actors still managed to get injured. Stallone suffered bruised ribs while Carl Weathers broke his nose. The ironic thing about these injuries is that they are precisely reversed by the characters' fictional injuries. By the end of the movie, Apollo breaks Rocky's nose while Rocky injures Apollo's ribs.