Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) may be the protagonist of the Rocky movies, but was he truly the greatest boxer of all time? Throughout the Rocky franchise, we got to see the Italian Stallion overcome obstacles, surpass his limits, and reach the pinnacle of the boxing world with his iron chin and indomitable will. However, there were also a number of other impressive fighters that boasted impressive careers and performances that matched, or even surpassed, Rocky's own incredible bouts. From the first Rocky film to the latest Creed, let's take a look as to who the boxing world would consider the greatest of all time.
How to Judge the Rocky Franchise GOAT
The fact that these fighters are fictional makes certain aspects of judging the boxing GOAT easier and harder. In order to judge who would be considered the greatest of all time in the Rocky universe, we'll be looking at the following aspects: professional record, fighting style, real-life inspiration, strength of their opponents, and the legacy of their story. The first four criteria are pretty self-explanatory; in order to determine who is the greatest at boxing, we have to look at the factors that made them a great boxer, the people they fought against, and how much they were victorious.
The legacy factor is even more subjective, but as sports fans in our world today are painfully aware, the narrative of an athlete's career plays a major role in how they are remembered. Looking at all the fighters in the Rocky universe through these lenses puts four characters in contention for the boxing GOAT: Rocky Balboa, Ivan Drago, Apollo Creed, and Adonis Creed.
4th Place - Adonis Creed
Starting with the youngest and newest fighter, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). We have yet to see the younger Creed's full career play out, but by the end of his second movie, Adonis boasted a professional record of 25 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws. He held the title
Adonis is the embodiment of one of sports' principle ideas, which is to surpass the competitors that came before you. In terms of legacy points, he has fully earned the respect of his competitors and the world as they acknowledged how worthy he is to carry on after his father. Adonis gets major points for a combination of his narrative and the challenges he overcame to reach his point. Though he had the funds for it, he never received professional training until he met Rocky.
Even still, he was able to win countless fights and worked his way up the circuit to become the heavyweight champion himself. In his journey to retain the belt, he had to fight the mountain that is Viktor Drago, the son of the man that killed his father. For this rivalry alone, Adonis deserves a chance to be considered the greatest boxer. He avenged his father's death while fighting a man that towered over him and was raised to fight like a vicious animal. Thanks to the mentorship of Rocky, Adonis was able to become a combination of both him and his father, making him the most impressive fighter in his generation.
3rd Place - Ivan Drago
It may be distinctly un-patriotic decision, but in the reality of the boxing world, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) would have demolished Rocky Balboa if he hadn't been fighting on the wrong side of the Cold War. Ivan had a professional record of 31 wins (31 KOs), 1 loss, and 0 draws. Much like Apollo Creed in the first Rocky, he was unbeatable against everyone but the protagonist. He was the highest echelon of a human's physical capacity and was an utterly dominant physical force. Not to mention he was the boxing champion chosen by the USSR to face off against American boxers; the Russians spared no expense to craft and develop the perfect boxing machine.
Ivan Drago's physicality is his defining feature. At 6'5" and 261 pounds, he was the tallest, biggest, and strongest fighter seen in the movies. In heavyweight boxing, there is no upper weight or height limit. Therefore, he was allowed to be a giant squaring off against mere mortals. The films also revealed that he had a punching power of over 2100 PSI (pounds per square inch). For comparison, most heavyweight boxers clock in power around 1200-1700 PSI, which is already impressive as it's nearly double the PSI of a lion's bite and 10 times stronger than an average person. The real life Mike Tyson, renowned for his ferocious knockout power, recorded a punching PSI of 1800. With the greatest physical attributes of any fighter on this list and the backing of an entire nation's resources, Ivan Drago is a formidable contender for the title, but even he lost to someone else.
2nd Place - Rocky Balboa
The case for Rocky Balboa as the boxing GOAT is the most compelling out of all the candidates. He was the greatest underdog story ever, surviving 15 rounds with the undefeated heavyweight champion before coming back to take the belt for himself. Upon reaching the zenith of boxing as the heavyweight champion of the world, he continued to win against stronger and stronger foes. The story and legacy of Rocky Balboa is entirely about overcoming insurmountable odds. After his bouts with Apollo Creed, he continued to be faced with "unbeatable" opponents, like the ferocious Clubber Lang and the otherworldly Ivan Drago.
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. Though no one from these comparisons went undefeated, they each only had 1 or 2 losses. However, these losses only contribute to his greater legacy. He was a nobody who should have never even had a chance for the belt. He trained in a rundown old gym, lacked the resources other champions had, and never even intended to be a professional boxer. But at the end of the day, Rocky had two key traits that made him a champion.
Rocky's two greatest strengths were his iron chin and the eye of the tiger. Though he would later become a more technical fighter as his career progressed, Rocky's primary calling card was his indomitable resilience. He could take punches like no other fighter, shown in his remarkable victory over Ivan Drago. The same Ivan Drago that had punches more powerful than anybody else on Earth. Pair this with the one thing Apollo said Rocky had over him: the eye of the tiger. This is fundamentally the reason that Rocky was our hero: he never gave up and never stopped fighting. He may have lost more bouts than the others on this list, but he got up every time he was knocked down. And every time he got back up, he won.
1st Place - Apollo Creed
The Dancing Destroyer. The Prince of Punch. The One and Only. These were the titles bestowed to the greatest fighter in the Rocky movies, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world: Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Apollo is hands down the greatest boxer in the Rocky universe, and boxing pundits and fans would be cheering his name in support. His impressive resume is unparalleled and was driven by his unmatched combination of skill, speed, and power. Throughout his professional career, he had a record of 47 wins (46 by KO), 0 draws, and 2 losses.
Apollo was the most complete fighter in the Rocky universe. He had all the physical and mental tools that made a boxer great, and he implemented them all to their maximum potential. Apollo danced around the ring, both literally and figuratively, allowing him to duck and weave with mobility that most heavyweight fighters lacked. Even still, none of this speed compromised his power as evident by his astonishing 46 KOs. The only person he couldn't knock out in a fight that he won was Rocky Balboa who, as previously mentioned, boasted the greatest chin of all fighters. Apollo also had impeccable technique and savvy, both for boxing and for his career legacy. He was a showman and a savant both in and out of the ring. No other trainer could prepare Rocky to beat Clubber Lang in Rocky III, but he managed to do it. Compared to the other fighters on this list, he was the most magnetic showman, which carries great weight in terms of establishing his legacy and popularity.
In order to be the greatest of all time, you have to beat the best as well. So let's talk about the heavyweight elephants in the room that are his two losses. The only blemishes on his illustrious boxing career came from Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago, the two other contenders for the title of boxing GOAT. A major reason people may favor Rocky is because of Apollo's role in the narrative. He was the Goliath to Rocky's David, and no one wants to root for Goliath. However, casting that aside reveals that Apollo was punch-for-punch the superior fighter. While still in their professional careers, Rocky and Apollo faced off three times– twice official bouts and once off the record. Apollo came out on top two out of the three times. We got to see the first two fights on screen, but the result of that final third fight was only revealed decades later when Rocky tells Adonis that, in that tiebreaker fight between the two of them, it was Apollo who won. Even though it wasn't an official fight, it was a bout where Rocky was at the peak of his boxing capabilities. Apollo had trained him to fight with technique and skill that he previously lacked, so Rocky was at his most complete as a boxer. But Apollo still won.
Now his fight with Drago was, even in the movie, absolutely absurd and unrealistic. At the time of their match, Apollo was 42 years old, out of his prime, and fighting someone at the pinnacle of human capabilities who was only 24. Drago was not only the peak of the Soviet Union's fighters, he was also at the absolute peak of his physical capabilities. The capabilities that had him as the singular strongest puncher in both his and our universe. Apollo's death and loss were a tragic end to his life, but like tragic heroes before him, that shouldn't diminish his legacy. Achilles was still the greatest Greek warrior even though he died. In fact, it should be more credit to Apollo that the only other loss he suffered was as unfair as it was. No one but Rocky beat him in his prime.
To further cement Apollo's position at the very top, we just need to look at his real life inspiration. Apollo's character was inspired by Muhammad Ali, and the similarities run deep. Muhammad Ali was dubbed "The Greatest" for a reason. In our world, he is almost universally considered to be the greatest boxer of all time. He achieved that legacy because of his unmatched combination of speed and power, his impressive record against equally otherworldly opponents, and that star power of a winner and a champion. If all those reasons sound familiar, it's because they can be one-for-one attributed to Apollo as well. The most skilled heavyweight without sacrificing any power? An impressive winning record against his greatest competitors? An irreplaceable panache when it comes to dominating from the very top? Apollo Creed was all of these things and more. Though he wasn't the protagonist of the Rocky movies, sports fans across the world would undoubtedly still crown him as the greatest boxer of all time.
If you're still looking for more boxing greatness, Adonis Creed returns to the ring in Creed III on March 3, 2023.