Here was this Scranton-area teenager with his lip crooked, talking in a thick Italian accent and acting like Sylvester Stallone's Philadelphia boxer movie character, Rocky Balboa.

"When I was growing up, I would act like Rocky a lot," Kunda said. "Looking at family videos -- it was so sad."

That attention to Rocky's detail finally paid off. Yo! Yesterday he won the Rocky look-alike contest in Philadelphia, besting 29 other Rocky wannabes during the Philly Loves Rocky week.

The 30 finalists were dressed like the Rocky character, talked like him and had to re-enact scenes from the five Rocky movies and answer Rocky trivia questions.

"People can't believe 27 years of being a dedicated fan ... has finally paid off," Kunda said last night.

For winning, Kunda, 38, a manager at Lens Crafters in the Harrisburg Mall, will be at the opening of Stallone's sixth Rocky movie, "Rocky Balboa," in December and will be invited to a private party with Stallone at Victor Cafe in Philadelphia, where some of the movie was filmed, he said.

Today, Kunda returns to Philadelphia for media interviews and the ceremony marking the Rocky statue's return to the art museum. Stallone is expected to be there, he said.

"I got my fingers crossed," he said.

Kunda can be classified as a Stallone/Rocky aficionado. He resembles the actor, his dog's name is Butkus -- just like Rocky's dog -- and he loves to eat at the Victor, the same restaurant where Stallone dines when he's in the City of Brotherly Love.

In fact, Kunda has sat next to Stallone at the restaurant three times, he said. In July, he met the actor when Stallone stepped out of the restaurant to get a breath of fresh air. Kunda got to know the owners and manager of the restaurant because he looks like Stallone.

"The manager was looking at me. She knew I wanted this meeting," Kunda said about the July 11 encounter with Stallone. "I didn't want to lose this chance. I had to play it cool."

Kunda said he walked outside and told the actor that he had seen the trailer of "Rocky Balboa" and loved it. Stallone began talking about why he did the movie.

"He said it wasn't about the fame or showing off his body," Kunda said. "Rocky fights again because he is so depressed, near suicidal. ... The way to purge it is by fighting."

While they talked, a passerby told Stallone that Kunda looked like a younger version of the actor. Stallone turned to Kunda, give him a light tap on the chest with a closed fist and agreed, Kunda said.

Kunda said he gets comments all the time about how he looks like Stallone. That's been happening since he was a teenager, he said. But he never had any type of surgery to look more like Rocky.

"Everything I got is from a Polish mother and an Italian father," he said. "My neighbors are supportive of my passion of Stallone and all things Rocky. I'm pretty much a normal Joe."