MovieChat Forums > Rocky II (1979) Discussion > What if Rocky fought SouthPaw in the fig...

What if Rocky fought SouthPaw in the fight?

posted a year ago by fourniera65 (144)
5 replies | jump to latest

So after all the training Rocky does in the first movie, he improves his skills to be about on Par with Apollo with Apollos already raw talent.

So in this movie we see Apollo training hard for the rematch, and Rocky also trains hard. But he has to learn how to fight Right handed. So it almost is like he is starting from scratch and part of the reason he gets destroyed in the rematch. But what if Rocky just trained his normal way and fought southpaw? Then he would have all the skills and training he got from the first movie and this movie to take on Creed. Think he would of Won or Lost faster?

[–] Lord Rake (4469) a year ago

I think he would have gotten hit a lot more because he could not see well on the right side of his face and Apollo was training for that. If he trained the same he would not add additional skills simply from training the exact same way, and he also just acquired the skill of fighting in an orthodox stance, not a whole new set of skills in this movie.
He might have gotten beaten up pretty bad fighting the way he did the first fight, Apollo could certainly adapt to either style but for a couple of rounds it helped Rocky, but after that it might have hurt him because Apollo is used to fighting that way. The last round it helped him because he got Apollo conditioned to fight orthodox and then switched again.

In the end Apollo probably would not have gone down in the last round and it would have ended like the first film. Or Rocky would have died because he couldn't see the punches coming and wouldn't go down, thank god they fixed all that in the next four films.

[–] fourniera65 (144) a year ago

Thanks for the response. Very good points. Rocky did need to switch it up to throw Apollo off.

[–] fourniera65 (144) a year ago

Also what I meant was, I know he would not of had additional Skills from fighting the same way as in 1. But in the first movie he had only 5 weeks to train. Obviously not enough time to get to the skill level as the Champ. I just meant that if he trained the same way as in the first movie, those skills and better fighting he did get from the first movie would of been stronger and I wonder if that was enough to take on Apollo in fight 2. Sorry I should of worded it more clear.

[–] Lord Rake (4469) a year ago

Rocky Movie logic is tough and one has to apply it on a movie by movie basis because it changes so much. In Rocky 2 we are going on the assumption that Rocky has a detached retina in his right eye from all the abuse he has taken. So even if he trained to his best shape Apollo might blind him or at the very least had he fought southpaw he would easily beat him because as Mickey demonstrated Rocky couldn't see the punches coming from the right side of his face.

[–] Branson26 (985) a year ago

Rocky barely trained for the fight. He spent most of the time focused on Adrian's recovery. A properly trained Rocky certainly defeats Apollo easier. The switching was a gimmick.