Muhammad Ali Sparring With Sylvester Stallone At 1977 Oscars Clip Resurfaces

It's no secret that Muhammad Ali's match against Chuck Wepner provided the spark that ultimately [...]

It's no secret that Muhammad Ali's match against Chuck Wepner provided the spark that ultimately led Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky.

So when the actor/writer was presenting at the 1977 Academy Awards, apparently the Academy decided it would be a good time to set up an impromptu sparring match with Ali himself -- something that was captured on film and has started to go viral again in the wake of Ali's death this weekend.

Ali approaches Stallone from behind during the clip above, identifying himself "the real Apollo Creed." Stallone jokes that they call him "Kid Salami," and the two briefly shadowbox before embracing and returning to the dais.

They would present the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress to Beatrice Straight from Paddy Chayefsky's classic film Network. Rocky would go on to win Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing, while Network would bring in wins for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Straight's Supporting Actress win.

Kid Salami was the name used by Lee Canalito's Victor Carboni, a wrestler in the film Paradise Alley. Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in that film, which would come out in 1978 so hadn't yet been made when these Academy Awards aired.

"Sly showed up to our office at the behest of a friend of ours as an actor, basically looking for a job," producer Irwin Winkler recalled during the Creed press tour. "He wasn't much of an actor with a reputation at the time; he had just done one or two small little films — one was called Lords of Flatbush where he was actually quite good. He came in and we didn't have a part for him, and it was one of those meetings where you're glancing at your watch and wondering how long it's going to take. But as he left the office, he said, 'Oh, by the way, I'm a writer.' And he certainly didn't look like a writer or act like a writer. He certainly didn't look like Ernest Hemingway, so he sent in the script and we read the script, but it wasn't Rocky. It was another script. And we liked the writing a great deal, although we didn't want to do that particular picture, Paradise Alley, which he made later. We called him and said, 'We like your writing a great deal,' and he said, 'You know, I have an idea about a fighter.' And we invited him to come in and he said, 'You know what? I'll write this script but there's one proviso. I'll take a chance, I'll spend all my time and I'm going to write this script. And if you like this script, you have to star me in the movie. And that took a lot of balls."

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