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Could Apollo have beaten Clubber Lang?

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I think you guys are forgetting how easily Rocky took him down. It didn't go three rounds specifically because Apollo crammed as much as he could into that damaged head. Apollo would have cleaned his clock without taking the damage in round one, like rocky should have but didn't have the talent to do so.
 
If he had followed the regimen he put Rocky through then yeah probably. Rocky's head wasn't even in a good place initially when training for that second fight.
 
I don't think Rocky 3 Apollo could take him, he's past his prime by that point. Prime Apollo though? For sure, would have wrecked him.
 
Drago was beaten by politics. He threw the fight, following orders. The politburo had decided that the diplomatic benefits of a happy and newly trustful USA were worth a momentary and close sports loss.

The crowd was instructed by agitators to cheer for the weak American to amplify the theatre of the thrown fight and make the American and his corner feel it was genuine.

It is not a coincidence that Ivan Drago is now the third largest shareholder of Gazprom. He is and was a patriotic Russian.

He killed your Apollo and he could easily have killed your balboa. You Americans are so easily fooled because you are fat and soft.

Da. Is Pravda.
 
can we highlight for a moment how fantastic carl weathers sold the physical aspects of apollo creed? Dude put in work in those movies, and he looked fantastic.
 
Most definitely. But the operative term there is "was." Apollo's prime is basically everything before the series started. Every subsequent movie treated him as less of a relevant fighter.

You could argue that, even as of Rocky III, Apollo was still at close to peak condition physically, but he'd already passed on the Eye of the Tiger at that point.

So are we talking about these guys at their peak, or at the moment in time in the movies? That's an important distinction.

Pit all these guys together at their respective peaks, Apollo > all. Only way we can even entertain him losing is in the scenario where he barely even gives a toss about boxing in the later movies.
 
I've never seen any of the Rocky films.

Should I?

Just skip Rocky 5

watch 1,2,3,4,Balboa & Creed.

Don't say that, let them watch the entire saga, you need to see the shitty one too to appreciate the new ones better.

Speaking of 5 and Balboa, where would Union Cane and Mason "The Line" Dixon fit on the Rocky power level scale?

Dixon probably is bottom tier given how much he struggled against a Rocky that was more washed up than Apollo in his last fight. Dixon would get bodied by anybody from the first 5 movies on their prime.
 
Ali > Tyson. Ali could regularly go the distance, Tyson himself admits that he couldn't (and neither could Clubber!). Ali also had a chin made of granite. So if that's that parallel, Apollo should win this.

Yeah I think I've finally come around to this POV. Tyson was a phenom but I don't think the history of any combat sport has ever seen someone with Ali's chin or physical endurance in general. Dude was over the hill in the rumble in the jungle and still beat prime Foreman, in large part thanks to his chin. Even a few years after that he fought Shavers and ate some ridiculous shots that made his whole frame shake but still never went down.
 
Drago was beaten by politics. He threw the fight, following orders. The politburo had decided that the diplomatic benefits of a happy and newly trustful USA were worth a momentary and close sports loss.

The crowd was instructed by agitators to cheer for the weak American to amplify the theatre of the thrown fight and make the American and his corner feel it was genuine.

It is not a coincidence that Ivan Drago is now the third largest shareholder of Gazprom. He is and was a patriotic Russian.

He killed your Apollo and he could easily have killed your balboa. You Americans are so easily fooled because you are fat and soft.

Da. Is Pravda.

You're a horrible person for even suggesting this, but I'll tell you what: If I can change ... and you can change ... EVERYBODY can change.
 
Dixon probably is bottom tier given how much he struggled against a Rocky that was more washed up than Apollo in his last fight. Dixon would get bodied by anybody from the first 5 movies on their prime.

Yeah, since an old and busted Rocky was able to go the distance I feel safe in declaring that Mason Dixon is a bum.
 
Almost everybody in the Rockyverse, even Rocky himself says Apollo was the greatest. Rocky was great but his primary claim to fame is letting people beat the shit out of him until they tire themselves out. That's a skill all by itself don't get me wrong, but I don't think he was ever even close to Apollo on a technical level.

I think Apollo would have danced circles around Lang.
 
Creed 2 should send Michael B. Jordan into a tailspin where he hits rock bottom and has to fight his way back through MMA. He's only a boxer but still does it and he comes up against Clubber's illegitimate son Blubber. Blubber has a fiercely great smile, fang teeth and a couple 'sit on you' moves.

I like this as a fight actually.
 
To be fair to Dixon he broke his hand during the fight and it was 10 rounds instead of 12. And when Rocky has something to prove he's basically unstoppable. I think Dixon would have beaten Cane and Gunn.

And while 5 isn't very good the recap of IV at the start is glorious and I love the street fight and very last scene with Sly and Sage. If you could condense V into a 10 minute film of those 3 scenes it'd be amazing.
 
This is the Rocky universe equivalent of Tyson vs. Ali

So whatever those arguments are, they'd apply here.

(also, this is your reminder: Clubber Lang was RIGHT. Rocky is the BAD GUY in Rocky III.)

Clubber was actually based on young George Foreman. Lang even gets rope a doped by Rocky, just as Foreman was by Ali.
 
I feel like Apollo might have struggled with Clubber.

Clubber seemed pretty damn good at playing mind games, he was easily able to get under Apollo's skin in just a few seconds, now imagine that amplified during the lead up to a fight?

He'd be literally everywhere talking about how Apollo is a chump for not being able to take down Rocky, etc and Apollo is too prideful to let those comments slide. We see how badly he takes those letters from 'supporters' in Rocky 2. He's a got thin skin that rivals Trump's...
 
- Apollo Creed was an all-around excellent fighter.
- Rocky Balboa's an idiot, but he has a cartoonish defense boost that allows him to absorb massive damage. And his ability to absorb punishment also allows him to train harder than anyone.
- Clubber Lang was similarly an idiot, but he had a cartoonish attack boost which allowed him to KO most opponents. His attack boost created a stamina weakness because he expected his opponents to go down in one round.
- Ivan Drago was a superhuman machine.

In Rocky vs Apollo part 1, Apollo was surprised by his inability to put Rocky down for the count.

In Rocky vs Apollo part 2, Apollo's head wasn't in the game (couldn't accept his "loss") while Rocky was improving as a fighter.

In Rocky vs Clubber part 1, Rocky was a trash fighter due to allowing himself to get soft and lose his drive, and his head wasn't in the game due to issues with Mickey.

In Rocky vs Clubber part 2, Rocky got his head back into the game and got a boost from Apollo's training/teaching, and Clubber didn't stand a chance.

IMO, if Apollo had chosen to go after Clubber himself instead of training Rocky to do it, Apollo would've won because he was smarter. Apollo would've avoided Clubber's KO-punches well enough to either tire him out or chop down an opponent that doesn't have Rocky's defense boost. I don't think it matters if we're talking Prime-Apollo or Rocky III-Apollo, they would both win.

In Drago part 1, Apollo lost because he was too far removed from his prime, and because Drago was a machine, the likes of which hadn't been seen in the Rocky franchise before (I would say Drago's murder-punches were stronger than Clubber's KO-punches, and Drago was an all-around better fighter on top of one-upping Clubber's talent). It took Prime-Rocky to survive in the ring long enough for Drago to break.
 
Adonis' daddy died in the ring against a steroid pumping freak but how would he have fared against Lang? Rocky was in horrible mental and physical condition when he lost to Clubber, he fought like goddamn bum! It was Apollo's training that saw him through the rematch. Plus, Rocky says Apollo won their friendly rematch in Creed.

So how would the Count of Monte Fisto fared against the Southside Slugger?

HyGEAa.gif


yes, I realize these are fictional characters

Gosh I love that actor, it's like an African American (and more handsome) version of Burt Reynolds in most of his action movies (not the Rocky ones). But he has a far wider range than Reynolds (who mostly is about cars and crashing LOL, but I mean a lot of the giggling and comic relief is similar ;)).

I don't know if he is an asshole in RL, as I don't want to know, to many mental images of mine as a child have been shattered by actors being total pricks and super conservative gay bashing idiots :(, always hurts when you look up to someone and they turn out to be nutjobs. But how can you not love this face :
carl-weathers-predator-1987-ef9wmt.jpg


:P.

So yeah in my mind, Apollo Creed not only would have whooped his ass, he'd whoop Rocky's every time as well. Fuck in my head cannon he just whooped the ass of out of that Russian Idiot while dancing circles around him. :P.
 
By the time of the first Rocky, Creed had already had a ridiculous fight record of almost fifty fights and almost fifty KO's. That doesn't just point to his boxing talent and skills, it points to a very long career he's already had at that point. When he first fought Rocky he was past his prime and perfectly complacent.

Lang was a wrecking machine but he had no stamina to go the distance. Past his prime, Apollo went the distance with Rocky twice. He was retired when Rocky fought Lang and was retired by a good few years when he fought Drago. He was, by that time, old and way out of shape, so it's no wonder what happened, happened.

As Rocky said to Donny, "He was the best".
 
It should be noted that in the second fight, Apollo seemingly could have easily outboxed Rocky and won a lopsided decision. His wounded pride made him fight Balboa's fight, and he still was beating the crap out of Rocky and was way up on the scorecards.

Like Apollo later said, Rock beat him by one second. Past his prime Creed was only a marginally lesser slugger than Rocky at his best and still a far superior boxer.
 
^^^^ Agreed

Prime Apollo would have beat Lang and Rocky in those fights if... IF... he actually tried to box them, and not fight them.

Apollo had the speed and mind for keep away tactics, but his pride got in the way those Rocky matches.

Now could Prime Apollo beat Drago?? Probably not.

Even if he witnessed Rocky get destroyed and die, he would probably try to revenge fight Drago and get his ass pounded. And Drago seemed single-minded and immune to the head games that would work on Clubber if Prime Apollo went that boxing, distancing route.

And we all know Apollo sure ain't flying off to some isolated cabin in Russia to train in mountains and waist deep snow to get himself mentally and physically ready.

Motivated Rocky was scary. Lol!
 
Apollo would go down. Apollo got baited, played, and was easily manipulated. Man had an ego bigger than the room he was in.
 
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