 When the movie was released, United Artists publicity department  released a story that an unknown actor called  Sylvester Stallone (qv) had approached them with a script for a  boxing picture but had insisted that they could only have the script  if he were allowed to star in it himself. When they refused, so the  story went, he threatened to take his script elsewhere so they  offered him $18,000 which he gratefully accepted and the movie was  made. Gabe Sumner (qv), who was UAs head of publicity at the  time, has since admitted that the story was a complete fabrication  but that it served them extremely well and that it "promoted the  whole underdog concept".