Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
The Unbelievable Story of Sylvester Stallone's Dog
05 Feb 2025
Sylvester Stallone was once so broke that he sold his dog to make ends meet. He eventually purchased the dog back after the success of the Rocky movie.
Full Episode
So this is a dog. And this dog is more famous than you. Or me. Because after he gets sold off by his owner, he actually gets saved by one of the greatest boxers in the world. So how did this dog get so famous? Well, the dog, well, we'll just call him Dog. One day, when Dog is a puppy, he gets adopted by this guy, Sylvester. And Dog loves Sylvester. They get along great.
And now Sylvester, he's an aspiring actor living in New York. And he's trying real hard to make it in the movie business. But unfortunately for Sylvester, there's a problem. He has a condition. He was actually injured during birth and as a result, part of his face is paralyzed and his eye kind of droops and he's got this speech impediment. So all that makes him really hard to cast.
But despite all that, he still wants to make it big in Hollywood. So he goes on audition after audition with his droopy eye and his slurred speech and he gets rejected a lot. And he does some local theater and a couple of non-speaking roles in some small movies. But it's not enough to pay his bills. So as Dog grows up, Sylvester works odd jobs to keep both of them fed.
And they eventually grow to be best friends. And Dog doesn't care about Sylvester's speech impediment. He loves him. So when Sylvester moves to Los Angeles to seek out more acting roles in Hollywood... Dog, of course, goes with him. And there, Sylvester gets a few more acting roles, but nothing that can really pull him out of debt. He's still really broke. And by this time, Dog is grown.
He's 120 pounds, and he eats like a beast. And poor Sylvester. he doesn't quite have enough money to keep feeding him. So then one day, he meets a guy hanging out in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, and that guy offers to buy Dog. And Sylvester really needs the money, so he makes a tough decision. And he sells Dog, his best friend, for around $60, hoping that one day he can get him back.
So now, poor dog, he lost his best friend and he has to go live with this stranger. But we're going to pause this for a second. We'll get back to him. Because now we got to talk about this guy, Bleeder. And Bleeder, he's a working man. He's a liquor salesman in New Jersey. But most importantly, he's a boxer. He works during the day and he boxes at night.
And he's not the best at boxing, but he's pretty good. And he's boxed his way all the way up to become state heavyweight champion of New Jersey. Which is pretty cool. But one day, Bleeder gets an opportunity that's gonna change everything. His manager gets a call from a well-known boxing promoter named Don King.
And Don King is looking for a fighter who's willing to get into the ring and fight the current heavyweight champion of the world. A man named Muhammad Ali. Because Muhammad Ali has two huge fights coming up. And he's basically looking for an easy match in between those fights. Some chump he can beat up real quick. And specifically, Don King and Muhammad Ali are looking for a white guy.
And this is because of the state of race relations in the United States at the time. Like a black boxer versus a white boxer, it would stir up a lot of emotions in people, and it would be quite a spectacle. And they would all make a bunch of money. This is like the original rage bait. But anyway, Bleeder gets this opportunity to fight the world champ, and he doesn't know what to do.
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