CARL WEATHERS - WEATHERS TOOK BEATING TO WIN ROCKY ROLE

Actor CARL WEATHERS suffered a violent battering at the hands of a professional boxer - to prove to SYLVESTER STALLONE he was cut out for the ROCKY movies. The 59-year-old, who played boxing champ Apollo Creed in the fight franchise, admits he was "beaten the hell out of" in the ring as part of his audition for the role. He tells MTV.com, "I was a nobody. They had literally seen everybody in the world - boxers, actors who thought they could be boxers, actors that pretended to be boxers. On a Friday evening, they had this cattle call. "They had been seeing people all day, and I read and they kind of perked up. Then I had to prove that I could actually act like a boxer. I went into the ring with a real boxer, and he beat the hell out of me, tired me out in about three minutes. I couldn't pick up my arms. They saw some promise though."