Sylvester Stallone Is Now In Training For Rambo 5

   

The outer reaches of franchise extremities are being reached by Sylvester Stallone. No star in the history of Hollywood has been so dedicated towards squeezing blood out of a stone, so if there are more installments to come, they will come. Which is why no one was surprised to hear him discuss a fifth Rambo film, but we all figured age would be a factor in that project falling by the wayside. Well, guess again!

In an interview with Vulture, Sylvester Stallone revealed that he was currently in training for a fifth Rambo.

"I’m getting ready for that. I’m starting to work out. I’m going to be appropriately vicious and all that stuff, but intellectual. A killer with a heart. Smart, yet stupid. Tall, yet short. Broad, but thin. You know what I mean. We’re going to try to cover all the boundaries."

Well, that devolved into gibberish quickly. You'll recall that Rambo, the oddly-named fourth chapter in the series, ended with Stallone's heroic killer (yeah, just go with it) finally ambling home to the Rambo estate in the middle of America, to reunite with his father, maybe kids, maybe someone else. John Matrix? Whatever the case, it seemed like a fitting end to the story. The only reasons Stallone would have to return to this character (other than money and sentimentality) is to provide a more final, conclusive end. There's no poetry without blood in the Rambo universe.

The original pitch for part five involved human trafficking and a No Country For Old Men vibe. Stallone's discussed this for years, however, so maybe that's changed. Regardless, he's definitely got an in with Millennium, who funded all of his recent movies and would gladly cut him a check again for a low budget Rambo, especially if it approaches the gore-fest of the last one. That one, by the way, grossed $113 million worldwide. However, Sly's stumbled as of late: just about no one went to see Bullet To The Head and The Expendables 3 is doing surprisingly poor business this weekend. Do you still gamble on the guy?

Well, of course you do. Just doing another sequel is boring. But doing a FINAL sequel has appeal. John Rambo was used and spit out by the machine in First Blood, bullied and tortured simply for being a soldier. In the second and third films, the machine came calling again, and he answered with an unmatched ferocity. The fourth film, decades later, made it clear that the machine basically abandoned him once again, banishing him to a Third World wasteland. Now that he's back in America, he's likely fighting a different kind of machine, one that's deemed him even less essential before – after all, he's 68, and considering what he's been through, he should be dead. And considering Stallone's age and mileage, he shouldn't be leading action franchises anymore. One more time? Sure Sly, we'll bite.

But Rambo had better be dead at the end of all this. Quit jerking us around.

Tony Bellew: Working with Sylvester Stallone in Rocky movie has inspired me to world title

Liverpool star back to his day job and hunting a third world title shot

Tony Bellew, the Liverpool boxer, returns to the ring at the Echo Arena on Friday night Photo: 

 

Cruiserweight Tony Bellew had a dream assignment in Philadelphia filming Creed, the latest movie in the Rocky series, and insists his acting experience alongside Sylvester Stallone has inspired him and re-enforced his desire to be a world champion ahead of his return to the ring on at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on Friday night.

“It's a lot better taking pretend punches to the face than real ones I can assure you,” said Bellew, who now faces Ivica Bacurin after his original opponent Lubos Suda was forced out with a medical issue.

“But I have missed boxing, really bad. I love fighting, I don't know what it is in me, whether it's a sickness or a gene, but I just love standing in front of another fighter and going for it, they can hurt me and I can hurt them."

Bellew was plucked from the ranks of pro boxers to work alongside Sylvester Stallone, who returned in the movie as Rocky Balboa the trainer, and insisted the acting did have its complexities. "I lifted a lot of weights and did a lot of cardio out there, when it came to the fight scenes, it's very choreographed and it's hard to remember a choreographed fight for 12 rounds, it's a lot of hard work over 16-hour days some times. But amazing," he said.

^{Bellew, a proud Evertonian, met up with Sylvester Stallone in Philadelphia}
 

It meant a stint in Las Vegas at the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight last month. “I love being around boxing and being at the Mayweather fight was incredible – I hated Las Vegas – but I loved being around amazing fighters and talking with them, I bumped into Andre Ward who I worked with in the film."

"He's a cool guy, I spent time with him in Philly. But it was great to finally get home and get back into the gym for tonight. The harder the training has got the more intense I have got, so the hunger and desire is still massive.”

Bellew says that the only way to satisfy that hunger is by landing a world title shot this year, and he expects that to be against awkward, talented IBF king Yoan Pablo Hernandez.

"The Hernandez fight is happening – sooner or later,” said Bellew. “I've said a number of times that he is the best fighter in the division, he's the most difficult fighter to beat in the division."

“Who wants to face a 6ft 4in southpaw that can punch a bit? No one. But I do, because I believe you have to fight the best and I am going to put together a game plan with the team on how to pull that win off.”

Bellew’s clash with Bacurin is part of a huge night of action in Liverpool, with Callum Smith taking on Christopher Rebrasse for the vacant WBC Silver super middleweight title and Rocky Fielding meeting Brian Vera for the vacant WBC International supermiddleweight title.

Three-time world title challenger Martin Murray also makes his bow at super middleweight on the card.