PHILADELPHIA is a fight town. Joe Frazier’s gym is deemed important enough to earn its own mention on the subway map, alongside the Liberty Bell. Take a trip to the imposing Museum of Art, at the end of Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and at any time there are likely to be dozens of people, young and old, running up and down the steps outside, following in the footsteps of an American icon.

America’s first capital is the home of Rocky, the fictional, washed-up pug who became world heavyweight champion and turned Sylvester Stallone from a journeyman actor into a multimillionaire.

It would be odd to see Stallone as any kind of prophet but in Rocky IV, made in 1985, he foresaw the threat to the United States’ heavyweight dominance from the East in the form of Ivan Drago, a muscular, emotionless personification of the evil Soviet Union. In fact, it took the fall of the Iron Curtain to get to the present stage, where all four holders of the world heavyweight championship are former Soviet citizens.

Monte Barrett takes the American challenge to the Russians in Chicago on Saturday, when he attempts to wrest back the WBA heavyweight title from the giant Nikolay Valuev. And Rocky is making a comeback, too. Stallone hit 60 last summer, but will return to the screen this year in Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the series which stretches back 30 years. Stallone knows his limits, though. For this comeback he has not picked some huge Russian as the man to beat but Mason “The Line” Nixon, who in real life is Antonio Tarver, a light-heavyweight.

Across town, at the First District Plaza, another former heavyweight champion is talking comebacks. Tim Witherspoon is 48, he was twice world heavyweight champion, battled Larry Holmes at his peak, stopped Frank Bruno at Wembley Stadium in 1986, but, 20 years later, he believes he could match today’s best.

“Today’s fighters aren’t smart,” Witherspoon said. “They are not clever the way guys like me or Tony Tubbs, or Greg Page were. I train fighters now and I do everything my fighters do. I think I could hold my own with the guys today.”

Witherspoon was one of the leading lights of an era of heavyweights that became known as the Lost Generation. He had money, he lost it. When he won the WBA title from Tubbs, he failed the post-bout drugs test for marijuana. He became one of the few people successfully to sue Don King, the promoter, but the $900,000 he won has gone.

Apart from the obvious need to make money — “give me a break, I’m a single parent” — Witherspoon believes stepping back into the ring is the best way to push the boxers he trains. “It’s easier to get publicity for my fighters if I’m on the bill too,” Witherspoon, who last boxed in 2003, said. “I’m in good shape.”

Witherspoon is here to support Chazz Witherspoon, the son of his cousin and someone he admits he would like to train.

Chazz was a late starter to boxing. At school he thrived at American football, basketball and athletics. He was offered several athletics scholarships to college, but he took an academic one to Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where he earned a degree in pharmaceutical marketing.

It was while at Saint Joseph’s that his dream of being a top-flight basketball player ended. “Our best player returned to play another season,” Witherspoon said. “He played my position, so I knew I would spend all the season on the bench so, after talking to Tim, I decided to try boxing.”

Things went well. Despite being a novice, he narrowly missed out on a place in the US team for the Athens Olympic Games two years ago and then turned professional.

Agustin Corpus, a Mexican, was his thirteenth opponent and, like those before him, was comfortably beaten. If Witherspoon, 24, is still learning, he could become very good. He has fast hands for a heavyweight, is physically impressive and has a good variety of punches. He lacks a big ego, too. “I’m happy to take my time,” he said. “Maybe in two years I can be challenging for the heavyweight title.”

Philadelphia is not completely sold on its love of boxing or Rocky. For the past 20 years, a row has been rumbling on about an 8ft 6in bronze statue of Stallone in Rocky pose, arms aloft. Made as a prop for Rocky III, Stallone presented the statue as a gift to the city after filming was finished. The problem was that the city did not really want it.

It started off atop the steps at the Museum of Art, where it proved a happy resting spot for the local pigeons but did not please the museum’s officials, who questioned the statue’s artistic worth. It was moved to the Spectrum, site of Rocky’s bout with Apollo Creed in the first film, and then the Wachovia Centre, the home of the 76ers basketball team and the Flyers ice hockey team. Lately, it has been in storage.

Now a permanent site has been found, near the foot of the famous steps. “This is an incredible honour from the greatest city in the United States,” Stallone said. It won’t hurt publicity for the new film, either.

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