Any fighter who endured the punishment that Rocky did, 2 times would have been so dead.
shareEach punch from Creed probably erased his knowledge of the state capitals.
shareThat's not true. Watch fights by Chuck Wepner, Randall 'Tex' Cobb and David Tua.
shareThats why Rocky 4 was the only realistic Rocky movie because Apollo did die from taking that many punches to the head
shareAnd even that was because of the damage he already had endured during his career.
shareBut Rocky didn't, and weirdly his face didn't look as bad after 15 rounds with Drago, as it did after 15 rounds with Apollo in 1 and 2.
shareYes... there's a part of me that wishes Rocky would have retired after the first movie, due to his eye injury. III and IV are even more egregious than this movie, though...I wish someone had been around to advise Stallone on the boxing scenes of those two movies and had them grounded more in reality (Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren were great adversaries for Rocky).
Still , I think this is a pretty good sequel overall. It's too bad that Thayer David passed away before this movie could be made...I think this movie would have been a perfect vehicle for him as Jergens, which would have shown the "seedy underside" of boxing and he could have played the villain role instead of Apollo.
How were the fights different on parts 3 and 4 from parts 1 and 2?
shareAt least the fight scenes in I and II had at least one foot set in reality. The second fight with Clubber in III and the Rocky-Drago fight in IV were so over the top, to the point where they were ridiculous and defied reality. Rocky putting his hands down against Clubber and saying "Hit me harder!" when Clubber knocked him out early in the first fight when Rocky actually tried to defend himself and then the entire fight against Drago... he'd have never made it through Round 1 of that fight.
II may have the best boxing scenes in the franchise (I thru Rocky Balboa). At least I can watch that and think, "Well, that could have possibly happened." The scenes in III and IV, though...no chance.