Unlike the first fight, Apollo has trained heavily. In order to protect his vulnerable eye, Rocky opts to fight right-handed rather than his natural southpaw, but this leaves him at a major disadvantage, as he is knocked down twice by Creed and outclassed for much of the fight.
Creed demands a rematch with Rocky, stating that he would fight him 'anywhere, anyplace, anytime' to prove to the world that Rocky's feat was merely a fluke. Rocky initially declines and retires from boxing, having surgery for retinal detachment, a condition that could lead to permanent blindness.
Both men, exhausted, trade punches until they knock each other down. As both men struggle to regain their feet, Rocky is able to will himself up at the count of 9 while Apollo collapses from exhaustion, giving Rocky the win by knockout, making him the new heavyweight champion.
Fame and complacency soon cause Balboa to lose his title to young thug Clubber Lang ( Mr. T ), who inadvertently causes the death of Rocky's beloved trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), before their first championship bout.
The tide turns, and Rocky is able to overpower the winded and outfoxed Lang, landing blow after blow and dodging Lang's attempted punches before knocking him out. Rocky is declared the winner and his title as Heavyweight Champion is restored.
Rocky II (4/12) Movie CLIP - I Won, But I Didn't Beat Him (1979) HD
Does Rocky lose in Rocky 4?
Both fighters trade blows, before Balboa seizes an opening, unleashing a series of vicious blows, eventually knocking him out. Rocky gives a victory speech, acknowledging that the local crowd's disdain of him had turned to mutual respect during the fight.
Rocky lost everything his manager, his title, his self respect and mostly he lost his edge! Like Apollo said "Now, when we fought, you had that eye of the tiger, man; the edge! And now you gotta get it back, and the way to get it back is to go back to the beginning." That's what I love.
Rocky's professional career includes the greatest number of fights for anyone else in the series, with 57 wins (54 by KO), 26 losses, and 1 draw. He notably has the most losses out of his competitors, being the only one to even have double-digit losses.
Rocky declines. After returning home, Rocky and Adrian discover they are broke after Paulie was fooled into signing a "power of attorney" over to Rocky's accountant, who squandered all of his money on real estate deals gone sour and failed to pay Rocky's taxes over the previous six years.
In 1980, Mr. T was spotted by Sylvester Stallone while taking part in NBC's "America's Toughest Bouncer" competition, a segment of NBC's Games People Play. Although his role in Rocky III was originally intended as just a few lines, Mr. T was eventually cast as Clubber Lang, the primary antagonist.
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.
If you liked the first film then I would definitely recommend watching the sequel, as it's just more great Rocky Balboa action, and a pleasant continuation of the story. It's not as fantastic as the first film, but worth two hours of your time.
As both men struggle to regain their feet, Rocky is able to will himself up at the count of 9 while Apollo collapses from exhaustion, giving Rocky the win by knockout and making him the new heavyweight champion.
There's also the matter of Creed's clear technical superiority, particularly as Rocky doesn't employ any real defensive tactics during their clash. Additionally, as the champion, Creed had access to state-of-the-art equipment and training techniques, while Rocky's own regime was a far more old-school affair.
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.
By the time Donnie meets Rocky in Creed, he's been funneling all his money into the restaurant he named after Adrian. As a result, he only has just enough to get by, and can't live the extravagant way he did in the past.
Rocky Balboa's first retirement happens very early into the franchise, after his retinol detachment surgery due to fighting. By the second movie, Rocky is already exhausted from boxing and ready to sit back and enjoy the fortune he made in his fight with Apollo Creed.
And the words Stallone is mouthing on screen are the words he wrote in 3 1/2 days and sold to producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff on the condition that he would play ''Rocky,'' and not Burt Reynolds, or James Caan, or Ryan O'Neal, who were being mentioned for the part.
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.
Sticking just with boxing, Balboa's style was based chiefly on two real life boxers — namely the great Rocky Marciano & a lesser known boxer named Chuck Wepner (top right vs Ali).
The 76-year-old actor said in an interview that he did not participate in the filming of the movie because the story had been given a direction with which he did not agree. "That's a regretful situation because I know what it could have been," Stallone told THR about disagreeing with the new film's tone.
The star once revealed in an Instagram post (via Men's Health) in 2017 that to achieve his ripped look for Rocky 3 - which changed the franchise in many ways - he undertook a "very high protein" diet which consisted of small portions of oatmeal cookies made up of brown rice and around 20 cups of coffee a day.
Mickey's death proves to be a galvanizing moment for Rocky. His previous comments about Rocky getting too "civilized" after winning the championship were proved by his beating at the hands of Lang, and his death is what motivates Rocky to push past his defeat and come back stronger.
