Both Rocky Balboa, the character, and Sylvester Stallone, who created and embodied him, were inspired by Rocky Marciano, the nineteen-fifties heavyweight, who is now much less known than his fictional namesake.
The name, iconography, and fighting style of Rocky Balboa was inspired by the legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano from Brockton, Massachusetts and from the 5 times world champion Roberto 'Manos de Piedra (Hands of Stone)' Durán, from Panama, where the Balboa is the official currency.
Now, you're wondering whether or not Rocky was based on a real person. The answer is yes and no: while this film focuses on fictional characters like Rocky Balboa and his opponent Apollo Creed, it was inspired by the life of real-life boxer and former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano.
Chuck Wepner, the ham and egger professional boxer who nearly beat heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and thus inspired the Sylvester Stallone series of Rocky movies, was honored today with his own statute in his Bayonne, NJ hometown.
Rocky Marciano is a 1999 television film directed by Charles Winkler and presented by MGM. It tells the story of the rise to fame of legendary boxer Rocky Marciano, played by Jon Favreau.
Marciano also has the highest knockout percentage of any heavyweight champion in history (over the period of a career) with 87.76%. In his professional career, he was only knocked down twice. The first occurred in his first title fight against Jersey Joe Walcott, and the second occurred against Archie Moore.
Although Apollo Creed's boxing style was based on Muhammad Ali's, Adonis uses a different style. Adonis has an orthodox stance like his father, yet Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler wanted Adonis style to be "unorthodox". They modeled Adonis' style on Timothy Bradley, a real life boxer from California.
Ivan Vasilyevich Drago (Russian: Иван Васильевич Драго, pronounced [ɪˈvan vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪdʑ ˈdraɡə]; Ukrainian: Іван Васильович Драго) is a fictional Russian character from the Rocky film series.
While the boxing matches are inspiring, bloody, and well-filmed, they aren't nearly as accurate as the fights in other movies, like the one at the end of Raging Bull. This pattern of unrealistic fights is true for almost every boxing match throughout the Rocky and Creed movies, except one.
Lang is a professional boxer from Chicago, Illinois, and is a one-time world heavyweight champion, having taken the title from Rocky Balboa only to lose it back to Balboa in his next fight. The character is very loosely based on a combination of Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes, and George Foreman.
Adonis "Donnie" Creed (born Adonis Johnson) is the fictional protagonist of the Creed trilogy — Creed (2015), Creed II (2018), and Creed III (2023) — the follow-up franchise to the Rocky film series. The character is played by Michael B. Jordan in all three installments.
While Apollo Creed is a beloved and iconic character in the realm of cinema, it's important to clarify that he is a fictional creation and not a real-life boxer. The character was conceived by Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the screenplay for the original "Rocky" film.
Marciano is the only world champion to complete his career undefeated. Marciano had a 12-fight amateur career during which he won the New England Golden Gloves title before losing to Coley Wallace in the Eastern Championships. It would be his last defeat inside a boxing ring.
Around 1955, Rocky Marciano had his punch measured at a USA military installation, where it is believed that the test was conducted on a ballistic pendulum. Rocky achieved a score of 925 foot-pounds whilst wearing a 12oz. boxing glove. Those who witnessed the test could hardly believe what they had seen.
She is a Soviet gold-medal swimmer who is the ex-wife and spokeswoman to Soviet captain Ivan Drago. Compared to Ivan himself, she is more despicable as she abandoned him after he lost to Rocky Balboa, and later appeared to have gone unchanged when interacting with her own estranged son Viktor.
While the surprise smash, which would go on to win Best Picture in 1977, wasn't directly based on a true story, it certainly wasn't fiction. The character of Rocky Balboa, with his scrappy story, was loosely based on Wepner's career and legendary fights.
Despite being the face of the Rocky franchise, Stallone chose not to appear in Creed III due to creative differences with producer Irwin Winkler as well as with Jordan, although he is still a producer on the film. According to Stallone, the film had a much darker tone that he didn't agree with.
Johnson is the biological mother Adonis Johnson Creed. She conceived her son via an affair with former heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed before he died in 1985. Her son was left orphaned after her death, until he was adopted by Mary Anne Creed, Apollo's widow, in the year 1998.
Summary. Creed 4 is unlikely to feature Stallone due to the direction the franchise is heading. Rocky's absence in Creed III indicates the franchise's shift beyond Stallone's involvement. Stallone's return to the Rocky franchise could revitalize his career and appeal to newer audiences.
On December 30, 1949, at Madison Square Garden, Vingo, then 16–1, and Marciano, 24–0, fought a slugfest. Marciano put Vingo down in the first and second rounds. Vingo fought back well, and by the end of the fifth round, was hurting Marciano with right hand power shots, and seemed to be gaining momentum.
Background: Marciano's primary strengths might've been his inhuman stamina, volume of hard punches and durability but make no mistake: The man could crack.
