Stallone, Chuck Norris + Sunglasses
First off — Of course, I ran those steps while humming the Rocky theme! It was surreal.
I was 16 when I watched Rocky 1. Like most of us, I was transfixed. That movie touched most of us. And like many young men, I become a Stallone fan for life.
Fast forward 14 years to 1990 - I was working on equipment design with Ringside Boxing Products and met Tommy Morrison on one of the trips.
His manager John Brown asked me if I would be interested in training Tommy on the set of Rocky V to keep him boxing and doing road work during his downtime on the set. I said, “let me think about it”.
No, I didn’t 🤣 of course I said Yes! And immediately! (I was cool about it. But holy shit I couldn’t believe this!)
What an experience! I spent time with Stallone in both Philly and LA and I’ve got so many stories from those trips I’ll share one day, but this one was whack…
Guess who visited the set one day?
Nuts right?
I grew up watching Stallone and Norris and here I was hanging with them🤯
As I wrote earlier, Stallone was already an icon. There were lots of rumors that he was hard to approach. Difficult. But with me, he was super down-to-earth and very cool. I’m sure it had to do with me coming in as a trainer/coach/martial artist and we spent a lot of time talking, boxing, and training.
The Street Fight in Rocky V
Over the years many people asked me if I choreographed the final fight scene between Rocky and Tommy as it wasn’t a typical movie fight - certainly not for its time.
I wish I could say yes I did, but it was the creative genius of stunt coordinator Bobby Bass. Having said that, Mr. Bass and I spent a lot of time on set discussing fight choreography, I shared many ideas for what a real street fight could look like, and I demoed ideas for headbutts, knees, and going to the ground. I’m fairly certain our talk influenced what we all enjoyed on the screen.
Life moved on and I went back to work on building the SPEAR SYSTEM® & HIGH GEAR®.
I lived in Montreal until 2008, then moved to Virginia Beach and finally Cali in 2010 then one day while walking around the 90210 I bumped into Mr. Stallone (and yes, it was in a sunglass store 😎)
Crazy world. Crazy life. Cool times. Cool memories.
Hope you dig this flashback!
Coach Blauer
KNOW FEAR®️ PODCAST BACK IN ACTION
On Monday I’m releasing an important KNOW FEAR Podcast with Nick Lavery. This man’s story is nuts. Inspiring nuts. If you have time this weekend, listen to his interview with Shawn Ryan (Former SEAL). WARNING: It’s 4 hours long! But well worth it. Listen on a walk, drive, or during your workout. It will prime you for my talk with Nick.
Great story.....great memories!
Thanks for sharing!
Freakin cool as hell!