SYLVESTER STALLONE has been on Hollywood’s A-list for three decades and his films have grossed more than $1.6bn, yet he is synonymous with the gritty journeyman pug whose underdog story inspired Joe Calzaghe.

“Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Rocky Balboa were my three favourite fighters as a kid. Whenever I watched Rocky punching the sides of beef in the slaughterhouse, I would go to a corner of my living room and start punching the back of the settee, with an orange peel in my mouth for a gumshield,” the unbeaten 36-year-old Welshman recalled. “I even drank a glass of five raw eggs after seeing Rocky do it in the movie. I gave up after one glass. I thought it was disgusting and I told this to Stallone when I met him at the Rocky Balboa premiere last year in London. ‘Me too’, he said, and we laughed. He’s a cool guy.”

The 62-year-old actor is a fan of Calzaghe, who insists that he will retire after defending The Ring’s world light-heavyweight title against Roy Jones Jr next Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“Joe would have worked in any era,” said Stallone, who was ringside in Las Vegas in April when Calzaghe won the light-heavyweight belt from another American legend, Bernard Hopkins. “He’s like one of these classical 1940s fighters, a Fritzie Zivic, who could go 15 rounds comfortably, and he doesn’t have to power you out with one shot because he’s in unbelievable shape. He will sit there and pepper the hell out of you with an unorthodox style. This hasn’t been seen in America for some time, so we dismiss it because everyone in America expects this thudding, crashing, bone-jarring punching style - supposedly this determines if a man is tough. It’s not true. What Joe does makes him a tougher man in my estimation because he puts himself in the teeth of the fire for a longer period to achieve his goal. That’s balls. Joe is one of the best boxers of his generation, no question.”

As is Jones. At his best, he dominated opponents with a formidable combination of power and speed, but he is way past his peak at 39. He has lost three of his past six bouts, two of them to Antonio Tarver. Stallone had hoped to cast Jones in the nemesis role in Rocky Balboa, the sixth and final instalment in the Rocky series.

“Even after the [second loss to Tarver in 2005] I wanted to use Jones. So I called him and said, ‘I’d still love to do it’. We’re similar in size and I like the way he’s much more muscular than Tarver. I called him 31 times and I got no return phone call. I talked to his secretary and his manager. ‘Well, he’s out fishing,’ they said. ‘He’s washing the truck . . . he’s petting his dog . . . he’s counting stars’. I said, ‘I have a feeling he has a cell phone’. Eventually I realised there was no hope, so I went to Tarver and he got the part.”

Assessing Calzaghe’s chances next weekend, Stallone said: “I’ve seen Jones shut down huge men like Virgil Hill and I saw him blast John Ruiz almost off his feet, so he definitely has that ability to rock an opponent to his boots. But that was Roy Jones four, five, six years ago. I don’t believe he has the speed any more to catch Calzaghe with the overhand right or one of those weird, sweeping hooks from the floor, similar to the punches from odd angles that Naseem Hamed used to throw. He will be easy to back up and he will fight in spurts.”

Much like American boxing in fact. Stallone says American “arrogance” in the sport has run its course. “We have seen the emergence of European boxers, along with Latino boxers, and they have come to far surpass the quality of American boxers. American boxing has to accept that it’s in a rebuilding process, or maybe a downward spiral. Our day of dominance over other nations is over.”

Jones, although dangerous, is unlikely to reverse the trend. “Joe is going to demolish him,” said Stallone.

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