One Rocky Trend Makes Balboa's Biggest Boxing Wins Even Better

Rocky Balboa was the ultimate underdog. All his greatest victories came against greats like Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago.

One Rocky Trend Makes Balboa's Biggest Boxing Wins Even Better

There’s one trend that is overlooked in the Rocky films that made Balboa’s biggest wins even better. In all his greatest wins, from Apollo Creed to Tommy Gunn, Rocky was portrayed as the ultimate underdog, but he still found a way to come out on top. He sent the message that sheer will and determination can overcome anything. Still, there’s a lingering trend in all these victories that seems to be forgotten.

Rocky’s greatest opponents from his first five films included Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago, and Tommy Gunn. All four of these opponents were the favorites before they ran into the Italian Stallion. Balboa didn’t always win in his first fight against these opponents, and he often took a beating bad enough to land him in the hospital, but he ultimately always found a way to win. He truly epitomized one of his most famous quotes, “It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.“

The trend that often gets overlooked in all these title fights is that Rocky’s opponents were previously undefeated. Apollo Creed was a whopping 46-0 when he and Balboa first met in Rocky, whereas Rocky was 44-20. The underdog Rocky Balboa took the fight, and no one gave him a chance at winning. Balboa made it all fifteen rounds of the match and ended up losing by decision. Then in Rocky II, “The Italian Stallion,” as he was known, knocked out Apollo Creed, handing him his first and only defeat in his career thus far. Rocky was truly the only man who could defeat Creed, which made the victory that much more impressive.

Rocky III introduced maybe the most intimidating villain in all of sports films, Clubber Lang. Lang, played by Mr. T, was mowing through opponents when he enticed Balboa out of retirement. In their first fight, Lang knocked out Balboa in two rounds. When the two met again at the conclusion of the film, Lang was standing at 28-0, another undefeated and seemingly unstoppable opponent. Balboa shocked the nation with a third-round knockout in their second fight and then went back into retirement, concluding his career with a record of 56-22. Those were two great comebacks against seemingly insurmountable and undefeated opponents, and Rocky again was the only man who could win.

Rocky IV arguably featured Rocky’s greatest of all victories. Ivan Drago, the great Russian experiment, was 31-0 when the two met up. It was Drago’s victory over Apollo Creed, which resulted in Creed’s death, that brought the great Balboa out of retirement for a second time. Balboa shocked the world again and knocked out Ivan Drago in the fifteenth round, not to mention he won over the Russian fans and basically ended the Cold War with a rambling post-fight speech. Count that, and it’s three undefeated champions bested by Philadelphia’s Favorite Son.

It’s also worth mentioning Rocky V and Rocky Balboa. In Rocky V, Rocky trained the new heavyweight champ Tommy Gunn, who was 23-0 when he and Rocky got into a street fight, and of course, Rocky came out on top. Maybe not official, but that would be another undefeated champ that Rocky took down. At the age of 60, Stallone’s character fought the then-current heavyweight champ, Mason Dixon in Rocky Balboa. It’s an exhibition match, and he lost the fight by decision, but it’s fair to say that was a moral victory. All of the fights in Rocky are so much more impressive when it’s realized that he was the only man who could defeat them.