Sylvester Stallone is known for his role as Italian-American Rocky Balboa in the Oscar-winning 1976 film, but today he was caught sparring with an opponent he probably never expected to face.
For his visit to the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, the action star was accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Flavin, and their three adult daughters Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet, as well as his brother Frank.
Playing into his public persona, Stallone was seen in a video sparring with the 86-year-old Pope, beginning by saying, “Ready, we box.”
He then raised his fists like a prized warrior for the Pope, dressed in his traditional white clothes and a skullcap, and did his best impersonation.
Stallone, 77, wrote about the encounter on Instagram, accompanied by an image of him holding five key chains with different keys on each: “Very rare and special moment. I got to hold the KEYS that open EVERY door in all of Vatican City! Including the Sistine Chapel.
You’ll see Stallone raising his fists like a prized warrior for the Pope, wearing his traditional white attire and a skullcap, doing his best impersonation, surrounded by Stallone’s family members
Stallone shakes hands with Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City
The action star was accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Flavin, and their three adult daughters Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet
“Of course they didn’t let me out of their sight with the KEYS… I don’t blame them!”
Referring to his daughter, he said: ‘So happy we named our beautiful daughter this beautiful name: ‘Sistine.’
Stallone’s Rocky Balboa character was the child in a Roman Catholic Italian-American family and reflected his father’s legacy.
The action movie legend was in Italy to promote his Paramount+ show ‘Tulsa King’, which was set to stream on November 15.
In the series, Stallone plays mafia member Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi who tries to reconnect with his gangster family after his release from prison.
Banished from his former family, he then moves from New York to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he starts a criminal empire.
In September last year, Stallone and his estranged wife called off their divorce and reconciled.
Stallone meets Pope Francis with his family
The couple, who have been together for 26 years, “decided to meet at home where they talked and resolved their differences.”
“They are both extremely happy,” his rep told Page Six.
Their reconciliation came a month after Flavin, 55, filed for divorce.
Pope Francis on Saturday praised Mongolia’s tradition of religious freedom dating back to the time of its founder, Genghis Khan, as he opened the first-ever papal visit to the Asian country with a word of encouragement for the small Catholic flock.
Francis met with President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh in a traditional Mongolian ger, or round yurt, set up in the State Palace, and wrote a message in the guestbook that he was visiting “a country that is young and old, modern and rich in tradition,” as a pilgrim of peace.
Francis was in Mongolia to serve one of the world’s newest and smallest Catholic communities — about 1,450 Mongolians are Catholic — and make a diplomatic foray into a region where the Holy See has long had problematic relations, with Russia in the north and China in the north. south.