Rocky IV (1985) With Rocky, Duke, and Paulie in his corner, Apollo is overly confident that he can dispose of Drago with ease. However, Apollo is not ready for the extreme size and strength of the Russian. After taunting Drago and landing a number of ineffectual punches, Creed is pummeled badly in the first round.
As such, Drago trains himself for the event, even getting himself injected with steroids by his trainers Manuel Vega and Sergei Rimsky to intensify his strength. During the match, Drago seemed to have the upper hand, but Rocky manages to fight back, earning the respect of the Soviet audience.
Drago is seen receiving intramuscular injections in the movie, implied to be anabolic steroids, though the actual nature of the injected solution is never explicitly stated; instead, Ludmilla, his wife, states as a joke that Drago is like Popeye and eats spinach every day.
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.
Rocky 4 - Apollo's Last Fight - Classic Film / Movie Boxing Match
Why did Ivan Drago throw in the towel?
It also showed he's far from a monster, especially when he throws in the towel to end the fight between Adonis and Viktor, as the latter is bound to lose but refuses to stop.
Commentator #2 in Las Vegas : Hey guys, Ivan Drago is definitely for real! Apollo : [His last words] I want you to promise me you're not gonna stop this fight, no matter what. No matter what!
After Ivan's loss to Rocky Balboa, Ivan was disgraced by the USSR, shamefully removed from his position as a Soviet captain in the military within a fortnight of the bout in 1986.
However, following his loss to Rocky in a highly publicized match in Moscow, Drago is seen being disavowed by the Soviet government and abandoned by his wife. It is implied that he returns to a life of obscurity in Russia, left to deal with the aftermath of his defeat and the loss of his status as a top athlete.
Anabolic steroids were steroids that were given to Ivan Drago to make him more muscular and endure more than a regular boxer. Even though several American people suggested this was the cause, but Ludmilla Drago denied this.
Filming. Wyoming doubled for the frozen expanse of Russia. The small farm where Rocky lived and trained was in Jackson Hole, and Grand Teton National Park was used for filming many of the outdoor sequences in the Soviet Union.
It's no secret that Rocky IV presents Ivan Drago as its villain. He's a colossal, chiseled fighting machine capable of beating seasoned fighters to death in the ring - something he seemingly does without any real consideration for his opponents.
Just Toying with Them: In the bout with Apollo, Drago pointedly doesn't throw a single punch or guard at all for several moments. Until his corner coach yells "let 'er rip" (in Russian). Cue the horrific slaughter.
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.
If the 2,150 p.s.i. punch thrown by Drago was in fact real, Rocky would be receiving forces equal to over eighty times normal gravity (80 g's) each time. In other words, one or two 2,150 p.s.i. punches, if it were possible, would kill Rocky instantly (Wayne State Tolerance Curve).
Though he infamously uttered the words "I must break you" to Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa, as Russian death-puncher Ivan Drago, Dolph Lundgren has no plans to break the legacy of Stallone's beloved boxer franchise.
But when he can't stop his hands from shaking after the fight with Drago, doctors confirm that all the fights and blows to the head have taken their toll on Rocky; he has suffered brain damage and is told to stop fighting if he wants to continue living.
Summaries. Rocky Balboa proudly holds the world heavyweight boxing championship, but a new challenger has stepped forward: Drago, a six-foot-four, 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union.
Ludmilla returned in Creed II, where it is revealed that she had given birth to Drago's son Viktor in 1990, and that she divorced Drago afterwards before marrying a rich man, leaving Drago to raise Viktor as a fierce boxer in poverty.
In Rocky IV, Creed decides to make a one-off return to the ring to fight a Soviet Union boxer by the name of Ivan Drago. The fight is billed as an exhibition, but unfortunately, Creed is knocked unconscious in the second round, resulting in his death.
While the story of his first film was partly inspired by a 1975 fight between underdog Chuck Wepner and heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (which nearly went the 15 round distance despite the odds), the inspiration for the name, iconography and fighting style came from boxing legend Rocco Francis "Rocky Marciano" ...
Apollo Creed's survival would have changed the life of his illegitimate son, Adonis, in one of two key ways. The first is that Apollo would have played a part in Adonis' life, teaching him and guiding him, providing him with the stability that he desperately needed as a young man.
Rocky Balboa, now 60 years old, is retired from boxing and lives a quiet life as a widower, having lost his wife Adrianna Pennino to cancer four years prior. He now runs a small, but successful, Italian restaurant named after her, where he regales patrons with tales from his past.
