Actor Sylvester Stallone—who famously portrayed boxer Rocky Balboa in that popular series of films—shared a video on Instagram Wednesday evening comparing Conor McGregor to the Italian Stallion as he knocks out Clubber Lang in Rocky III.
The comparison to Rocky makes sense. While Rocky was an up-and-coming boxer, he had never faced elite fighters before taking on Apollo Creed in Rocky. McGregor, meanwhile, is entering his first professional boxing match as a severe underdog against an established superstar in Mayweather.
Other similarities exist between Rocky and the McGregor-Mayweather fight. In Rocky, Creed is unable to find a challenger for a fight he scheduled in Philadelphia, so he decides to give an unknown contender a chance to generate major hype and publicity.
Sound familiar? Mayweather ran through a series of uninspiring opponents later in his career on his way to a 49-0 record. And while McGregor isn’t an unknown contender, his matchup against Mayweather seems like more of a money-printing novelty than a pure boxing match.
The comparison diverges from there, however. While Rocky has become a definitive symbol of sports underdogs in pop culture and was representative of the ultimate rags-to-riches story—he was working as a debt collector for a loan shark at the beginning of the first movie—McGregor is a two-division UFC champion who has already made millions in the fighting game.
In other words, it’s hard to imagine McGregor punching frozen meat or chasing around chickens in his training regimen.
The comparison may not be all that flattering for McGregor, either, as Rocky loses to Creed in their first matchup. He did last the distance, at least, which is more than many expect from McGregor in his professional boxing debut.
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