however, he eventually beat 5,000 other hopefuls to land his breakout role opposite stallone, carl weathers, and brigitte nielsen. to improve his physique and athletic abilities, he trained intensely in bodybuilding and boxing for five months before the film was shot. lundgren said, "we trained six days a week—weights in the morning for about an hour, then boxing in the afternoon. we did a split of chest and back one day and then shoulders, legs, and arms the next. we boxed for an hour and a half, practiced the fight choreography, and did bag work and abs." he weighed – during filming, but in the film he was billed at ; one publisher said of drago, "he's a hulking 261 pounds of merciless fighting machine, the best that soviet science & medicine can create". his character's lines "if he dies, he dies" and "i must break you" are amongst the best known of the "rocky" series, and have often been cited in popular culture. in an interview, sylvester stallone said, "during [the filming of] "rocky iv", dolph had hit me so hard i had swelling around the heart and had to stay in intensive care at st. john's hospital for four days." lundgren later fought in a real boxing match against former ufc fighter oleg taktarov, and lost via decision. lundgren has highlighted the premiere of "rocky iv" at westwood movie theatre as the moment which changed his life, remarking, "i walked in to a westwood movie theater as grace jones' boyfriend and walked out ninety minutes later as the movie star dolph lundgren. i was shell-shocked for years from the mind-boggling and daunting experience of being a student-athlete from tiny sweden suddenly having to live up a new action-star persona."