A rivalry that very few realized existed has been confirmed, with it emerging that Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a healthy professional rivalry.
The two actors both specialized in playing combative characters on the silver screen, with Schwarzenegger renowned for his work as ‘The Terminator’ and Stallone for his portrayal of Rocky.
With the pair so iconic in their respective roles, even Mike Tyson was asked who would win in a boxing match between the pair.
In a rather light-hearted interview with Mario Lopez, Tyson gave Stallone the edge due to his work as Rocky, who was a boxing character.
“Stallone really fought people before, he actually boxes. I don’t know if Arnold really actually fought before,” Tyson explained.
However, it has emerged that Tyson’s projection was somewhat off, as was made clear by statements made on the brand-new Netflix documentary about Schwarzenegger’s life.
Stallone freely admitted that he always felt the Austrian was the superior action hero.
“He just had all the answers,” Stallone told Netflix.
“The body, the strength. That was his character.”
Stallone believes he wasn’t as strong as Schwarzenegger
It seemed as though their respective film careers mirrored each other.
They were both poster boys for being physically tough, and they were inevitably compared with the other as a result.
With his admission to the Netflix documentary, Stallone made clear he believed he wasn’t as strong as the Austrian, which makes for a further interesting debate about what would have happened had the pair met in the boxing ring in their primes.