By Mark Vester
Peter Manfredo, Jr. will get some added support when he steps in the ring with WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe on April 7 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
IC Wales reports that Sylvester Stallone plans to make the overseas trip to back Manfredo's bid to beat the best super middleweight in the world. Manfredo became good friends with Stallone during his time on the boxing reality show The Contender, which is produced by Stallone.
"Sly is one of my biggest fans and he'll be in my corner in Cardiff when I fight Calzaghe. We're good friends - and saying you've Sly Stallone as a mate is kind of weird. We first met when I tried out for The Contender," Manfredo said.
Calzaghe has nothing bad to say about Stallone, he shared a few laughs with him at a recent gala boxing dinner. Stallone was in the UK to promote his latest motion picture, Rocky Balboa.
"Sly was great. He's just a normal guy. He turned up for the dinner by himself. There was no entourage. He said he wanted to meet me after seeing my recent win against Jeff Lacy. He said he was a fan of mine and had seen me fight many times but I told him I had seen him fight a lot more in the movies," Calzaghe said.
"I value Sly's opinion. He's in great nick for a man of 60. He has the body of a 30-year-old. It was great to hear him tell us about Hollywood. Enzo (Maccarinelli) even asked if there may be a part for him in the new Rambo film but Sly just laughed!"
