Rocky Balboa’s legacy lives on in a young fan.
Nine-year-old Ro Knight wowed Sylvester Stallone by reciting an iconic inspirational speech the boxer once said to his son.
Knight was among a large crowd gathered outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the base of the stairs, popularized by the “Rocky” movies as one of the title character’s training grounds, to celebrate the inaugural “Rocky Day” on Dec. 3 and to meet Stallone. The date marked the 47th anniversary of the original movie’s release in 1976 and will be celebrated annually.
Stallone later stood in front of a statue of Rocky on the museum’s grounds to take pictures with fans, per videos posted online. Knight marched right up to Stallone and uttered lines from the recognizable speech Rocky gave his son in the sixth and final movie, “Rocky Balboa.”
In the scene, Rocky Balboa Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia) complains to his father about the difficulty of living in his shadow and being compared to his legacy. “People see me and they think of you,” Rocky Jr. says.
Rocky responds by telling his son to take a good, hard look at who he’s holding responsible for his troubles. “When things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow,” he says.
Knight’s Rocky Day moment kicks off midway into Rocky’s speech, when he says, “Let me tell you something that you already know,” Knight tells Stallone, echoing Rocky.
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows,” Knight and Stallone say together.
Knight recited the speech for roughly 45 seconds with Stallone jumping in at times, according to NBC New York. Knight is an aspiring actor and wrestler, the outlet reported.
“You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life,” Knight recites. “But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep movin’ forward.”
The video ends with the two sharing a hug.
Stallone reposted a TikTok of the memorable duet on his Instagram, amassing more than 8 million views.
“This kid is a real life Rocky!” Stallone captioned. He also thanked Philadelphia for acknowledging him. “Thanks Philly, what an honor!”
Knight also performed the speech in 2021 while in the gym wearing Rocky’s trademark red, white and blue shorts, and Stallone shared that video on Instagram, too.
“This very young fan is amazing!” Stallone wrote at the time. “It makes me incredibly proud The ROCKY character has been passed down through several generations. It’s quite humbling … Keep Punching young man!”
Knight, an Alabama resident, told NBC New York that he’d prepared in advance to deliver the speech for Stallone at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
“If I’m coming down there, I have to do something,” Knight said. “So, I was like, ‘What’s the most iconic promo?’ I’ve done it in the past before. I started memorizing it again. Then I went up and did it.”
Knight said he’s grown up watching “Rocky” movies and rehearses to recite scenes in front of crowds. Still, he said he had to overcome some nerves when face-to-face with Stallone.
“He has that aura, like he glows,” Knight said of Stallone. “But no matter how much I was nervous, I had to get through that, do the promo and it was just awesome.”
The “Rocky” world continued when “Creed,” a spinoff franchise, debuted in 2015. It has three installments, but Rocky only appears in the first two because because the third “goes in a direction that is quite different” than the one he would’ve taken and places characters in a “dark space,” he told The Hollywood Reporter last year.
“I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness,” Stallone said.
A fourth “Creed” is in the works without Rocky’s character and Knight told NBC New York he wants a part.
source: today.com
