PHILADELPHIA — There’s a scene in “Creed” where the latest brash boxer who challenges the upstart protege of Rocky Balboa barks, “No one cares about Balboa anymore!”

Yo, through 40 years of Rocky as an underdog, champion, and aging, widowed fighter, fans sure do care.

Dressed in robes, fedora hats and even boxing boots, the costumed enthusiasts chanting “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” on Friday had one more reason to cheer for Philadelphia’s favorite fictional son.

Sylvester Stallone goes one more round as Balboa in the spinoff “Creed,” and he wants the character to tally even more before he joins Adrian, Apollo and Paulie in that great squared circle in the sky.

“There’s more to go,” Stallone said Friday. “I would like to follow this character until eventually he’s an angel.”

The 69-year-old Stallone, writer of the first “Rocky” that earned 10 Academy Award nominations including best picture, promised more movies based on Balboa and Adonis Creed. Creed is the son of Rocky’s heavyweight rival and beach-running friend, Apollo Creed, and the titular character who coaxed Balboa out of retirement and into a trainer’s role in the movie set for a Nov. 25 release.

Stallone and fellow “Creed” actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, writer-director Ryan Coogler and producer Irwin Winkler attended a celebration of the movie atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.

Mayor Michael Nutter attended a screening Thursday night and said the movie should win an Academy Award.

“The movie put Philadelphia literally on the map,” Nutter said.

– From news service reports