Stallone says he's hanging up his Rocky gloves

The 72-year-old actor has shared a video on Instagram on Wednesday in which he says farewell to his legendary character introduced in 1976, the heroic underdog boxer Rocky Balboa.

The post reveals that his appearance in the recently released "Creed II" will be his "last rodeo" as Rocky.

In the "Creed" spin-offs from 2015 and 2018, the retired champ is called to train a new protege, Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan. In the video shot on the last night of the production of "Creed II," he tells his co-star Jordan, "Now you have to carry the mantle."

In the Instagram message accompanying the video, Stallone wrote that although he was sad to abandon the role, he was also thankful for the "ultimate privilege to have been able to create and play this meaningful character."

"The most wonderful thing of all, is that ROCKY will never die because he lives on in you," he wrote.

The first Rocky movie won three Academy Awards for best picture, best director and best film editing in 1977. Along with Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles, Sylvester Stallone became the third man in history to have received a best actor and best script nomination for one film; he however never won the prized statuette.

eg/db (AFP, dpa)