Because of the close outcome of the fight the general public believes that Apollo did not necessarily win. Despite their mutual agreement not to seek a rematch, Apollo challenges Rocky again, but Rocky declines and retires from professional boxing.
In Rocky II they fight again and this time Rocky is the winner but again there is no hate between the two and in Rocky III Apollo is sparring against Rocky as he prepares for the rematch against Clubber Lang after having lost the match in which they have their first encounter.
Rocky 2 ends with an intense rematch between Balboa and Apollo in which the former character actually wins, and it's this shocking loss that spurs a change in ego for Weathers' character, and a proper acknowledgment of his competitor as a great fighter.
An enraged Rocky then sets out to avenge Apollo's death by challenging Drago himself and agrees to an unsanctioned 15-round bout in the Soviet Union. Rocky again wears Apollo's stars-and-stripes boxing trunks.
We got to see the first two fights on screen, but the result of that final third fight was only revealed decades later when Rocky tells Adonis that, in that tiebreaker fight between the two of them, it was Apollo who won.
Rocky II (4/12) Movie CLIP - I Won, But I Didn't Beat Him (1979) HD
Who was Rocky's toughest opponent?
Ivan Drago: Drago was a Soviet boxer who was trained to be a killing machine. He was incredibly strong and had a powerful punch. Rocky faced Drago in a 15-round fight in Rocky IV, and it was one of the most brutal fights in boxing history.
Rumours of the third fight would persist for decades afterwards, but the outcome was apparently not known to anyone but the two fighters until 2015, when, asked by Adonis Johnson Creed (Apollo's son), Rocky confided that Apollo had won.
Because of the close outcome of the fight the general public believes that Apollo did not necessarily win, and thus he gives Rocky a second chance in a rematch.
In 1985, he killed an African-American boxer named Apollo Creed. In boxing business, he was undefeated until Christmastime of 1985 when Rocky Balboa defeated him. Shortly after his defeat, he was arrested alongside several other members of the Koloff crime family, causing the syndicate to become heavily weakened.
He no longer had the support of a mentor or a friend to seek training from. Without Apollo being killed, Rocky would have perpetually had someone to fall back on. Consequently, this resulting isolation is highlighted throughout Rocky 4 and demonstrates the loss Sylvester Stallone's character is experiencing.
It's not until he's in the ring with Drago that Apollo seems to understand his mistake, but by then, it's too late. Faced with either publicly admitting defeat (and, by extension, his own apparent weakness) or allowing Drago to kill him, Apollo Creed opts for the latter, keeping his pride intact but losing his life.
In the original Rocky, he is 30 (meaning he was born in 1945). In Rocky II, he turned 31. If Rocky III takes place three years after Rocky II, Rocky should be 34, which is exactly what age he is (as pointed out on TV). All of this serves to illustrate that the film is set in 1979 and '80.
Seargeoh Stallone was an American actor, he was the brother of Sage Stallone and the son of Sylvester Stallone. He appears in the 1979 film, Rocky II as a baby. It was his only role in the Rocky saga. Aged three years old, he was diagnosed with autism.
Read on. (Note: ESPN Classic will be showing "Rocky" at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.) In Reel Life: Rocky Balboa is a 30-year-old club fighter. In Real Life: Sylvester Stallone was inspired by Chuck Wepner, a 35-year-old club fighter who also happened to be the No.
T), and he's killed by Soviet boxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV (1985). (Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis “Donnie” Johnson, son of Apollo, in the Creed films released in 2015, 2018 and last year.)
After his loss to Rocky, Drago was disgraced by the USSR and Ludmilla left him to raise their son, Viktor, on his own. Following the end of the Cold War, Drago was forced to move to Ukraine, where he lived a modest life while relentlessly training Viktor to be an even more formidable boxer than he was.
Why Apollo Creed Would Beat Clubber Lang. The fight would be one for the history books, and it would surely be close, but in the end Apollo Creed's superior skill as a boxer would win out over Clubber Lang's superior strength.
Rocky IV (1985) - Rocky IV also fudges the timeline by making it seem like it starts right after Rocky III but the movie then jumps forward to 1985 when Ivan Drago arrives in the U.S. Apollo was killed by Drago and Rocky defeated the Russian in a fight held in Moscow on Christmas 1985 when Rocky was 38 or 39.
The series has yet to specify Lang's fate: Clubber Lang eventually retired from boxing and according to Sylvester Stallone, Clubber Lang later became a born-again Christian and a ringside announcer.
SPOILER: In the final theatrical release of the film, Adonis Creed loses the fight to Pretty Ricky Conlan by split decision, mirroring the end of the original Rocky.
Rocky V (1990): December 25th, 1985 - mid-1987 (or 1988, 1989, 1990?) What age is Rocky in this film? We know from Rocky that Rocky was born some time in 1945 (this is because he is 30 in Rocky, which was set in 1975). Because Rocky V begins in early 1986, this would mean that, at the start of the film, Rocky is 41.
Rocky honors Apollo's wishes, which allows Drago to land one final punch on Apollo, killing him. In the aftermath, Drago displays no sense of contrition, commenting to the assembled media: "Tonight I have beaten a great champion.
