Originally posted by steverules_2
I was thinking of doing this thread a while a go...but to be honest it wouldn't work for Rocky IMO. With Apollo it was normal training, for Drago Duke said 'You're gonna have to go through hell.' Rocky I think woulda had the quickness but I'm not sure he would have had the endurance and strength to take down the Russian. So IMO Rocky III would have lost to Ivan Drago.
I'm inclined to agree to a point. But it's really hard to rank Drago, since Rocky is the only fighter he really fought.
The only other fighter he fought, Apollo Creed, was way over the hill. He even stumbled when doing his "float like a butterfly" dance, a sure sign he's a shell of the fighter we saw in Rocky I and II. (Not to mention, Creed's three years older than Rocky, and Rocky was in his 30's at the time he fought Creed, to technically Apollo Creed was nearly past his prime at the start of the series.. The fights happen in 1975-'76, and Apollo was born in 1943.)
And Rocky was on the edge of retirement himself.. Ivan Drago was much younger, and was being drilled by the Russian government. Did Rocky have to go through hell to become strong enough to beat Drago, or did he have to go through hell to go through hell to overcome the losses old age naturally brings about? (Rocky was born 1946, and the Drago fight happens in the mid '80's. Basically a young man vs a middle age man.)
I'd like to see how Rocky II Apollo Creed would have done against Ivan Drago.
