Rocky Balboa - When was his peak?

Rocky Balboa was born July 6th 1946 and is an Italian-American who retired heavyweight boxer and former Two-Time Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Rocky is famous for his adaptable style, fighting spirit, iron chin, tenacity and vicious body attack from the southpaw stance.

Rocky beat undefeated champion Apollo Creed, undefeated hungry monster Clubber Lang, giant Russain Ivan Drago.

What film was Rocky at his peak and best? In Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, or even Rocky V and Rocky Balboa VI.

Discuss.

For the rematch with Lang, Balboa was at his peak. Leaner and faster. He has so slimmed down he looked like a middleweight.

He bulked up a bit more for Drago and though not as fast that night his chin was incredible. 86 Tyson would not have stopped him even with a free punch. Fact.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

For the rematch with Lang, Balboa was at his peak. Leaner and faster. He has so slimmed down he looked like a middleweight.

He bulked up a bit more for Drago and though not as fast that night his chin was incredible. 86 Tyson would not have stopped him even with a free punch. Fact.

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Agreed . He was at his absolute peak for the rematch with Lang. Mickey would’ve been looking down with pride seeing his “greasy fast Eyetalian speed!”
I wonder if after that fight whether Balboa got offered to go on dancing with stars?

I doubt it very much as it wasn't on back then.

I respectfully disagree with both of you. I believe Rocky's peak was when he beat Apollo in Rocky 2. Mickey trained him to be at his best ever and he was a fighting machine who would not be denied. Rocky had the eye of the tiger, he was hungry and wanted it for his wife and new born child.

Rocky beat a fully motivated, great champion in Apollo Creed. He would not be denied.

That Rocky would have beaten a prime Muhammed Ali and Joe Louis that night.

The level of your boxing knowledge once again confirmed.

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Originally Posted by Master

I respectfully disagree with both of you. I believe Rocky's peak was when he beat Apollo in Rocky 2. Mickey trained him to be at his best ever and he was a fighting machine who would not be denied. Rocky had the eye of the tiger, he was hungry and wanted it for his wife and new born child.

Rocky beat a fully motivated, great champion in Apollo Creed. He would not be denied.

That Rocky would have beaten a prime Muhammed Ali and Joe Louis that night.

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Yeah, he was amazing , and it was a close call. But when he came back after getting it wrong against Lang in the first fight , he improved his “all round game”. It’s almost like Tyson Fury’s comeback.
1. He won it all and then lost dedication.
2. He had to beat somebody that some people perceived as the hardest hitter of all time.
3. He had to add something to his game because what he had wasn’t enough.
4. He regained the eye of the tiger. That’s why Survivor sang about it in Rocky 3 !

Rocky 3 got it wrong because he was past his best, beating easy, tailor made fighters for him, handpicked by Mickey.

Rocky 3 got destroyed by Clubber Lang and the only reason he beat him in the rematch was because Lang was over rated, too young, raw and naive. Clubber did not know how to handle being a champion just like Leon Spinks and Ruiz.

1. Rocky 2 beat ATG who was at the peak of his powers.
2. Rocky 2 was fully motivated and a hungry challenger who wanted to win for Adrian/son.
3. Rocky 2 did not lose to Apollo at the end of Rocky 3 when they had their sparring session.

Taking everything into account. Rocky 4 was his peak performance. Fresh off beating Clubber Lang he goes to Siberia to train (OK Montana or whatever it was) with nothing more than some rocks and a few lumps of wood. No sparring, no steps, no Apollo. And beats a rampaging roided up giant Russian who just killed his bezzy mate. And he had brain damage. He did have a truly great soundtrack to get the job done to though.

Edit: And he'd completely forgotten all of the defensive skills he learned one fight ago. Because of the brain damage no doubt. He basically let a whole country punch him in the face for 14 rounds and then poured it on late in the fight to beat 140 million people. Joe Gallagher would have been creaming his pants at those tactics.

Peak was somewhere between Lang and Drago. Quality was hand picked for him between the Creed rematch and Langs first fight mickey says "they weren't killers like this guy" (lang). It all got to his head and he wasn't taking things seriously like a consummate professional should and you could tell he sh*t his pants when he got called out by Clubber. For the Lang rematch, a new trainer unlocked new skills and style for him which is not something past prime fighters usually adjust to. They a past prime fighter will dial his competition into his capabilities. Prime fighters tailor camp and abilities to the task at hand. At the beginning of 4 Apollo says "that's easy for you to say youre still on top" Then rocky saw Apollo die and came face to face with his own mortality. A Fighters never the same after that.

Master got it, Creed was the best fighter Rocky ever beat. Proven by what each did as champions. Lang and Drago had the bully bump all the unbeatable monsters get but once they were beaten they were done.

And Rocky gets another typical fan reaction when he was old that he rose up to his very best on this night. No. Fighters peak when they are young. They look good on occasion when they are old due to the opponent. Put a prime Apollo in front of this old Rocky and Apollo boxes his ears off, because Rocky’s old. Old people simply aren’t as good at anything. Anything physical that is.

His peak was probably lost in Mighty Mick's Gym fighting bums. He was never closer to his peak on film than he was vs Spider Rico. Who knows what he could have done if all he had to do was fight for a living instead of act as muscle for Gazzo.

Rocky was 30 when he fought Creed. Rocky being that certain style fighter he would have probably been in his physical prime about 5 years earlier, HOWEVER he completely changed his style several times. In Rocky II he learned to fight in the orthodox stance, in Rocky III he learned to be a slick boxer, in Rocky 4 he forgot all that and went in face first again....so that means Rocky has always been a boxing prodigy but he's also prone to fighting like a dumb fuck. It's like he could fight like Floyd Mayweather but was more comfortable fighting like Arturo Gatti :vd:

His prime was Judge Dredd and demolition Man..nothing else mattered after that..

Rocky was mmmm..a middleweight at best fighting as a heavyweight..you can achieve anything in fantasy land and a decent emotional soundtrack.

Has anybody else seen the tournament Top Rank is doing? The Rocky Madness Tournament. I was thinking of doing something similar for the forum before this came out (but using real fighters), but there is never enough forum interest in games so was it is not worth my time.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETe6UQ2U...jpg&name=large

Who is Leo sporino.

Presume he's in Creed films

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

Who is Leo sporino.

Presume he's in Creed films

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Yea from Creed, played by Gabriel Rosado.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

For the rematch with Lang, Balboa was at his peak. Leaner and faster. He has so slimmed down he looked like a middleweight.

He bulked up a bit more for Drago and though not as fast that night his chin was incredible. 86 Tyson would not have stopped him even with a free punch. Fact.

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Spot on. He turned into Calzaghe that night. Fast, slick and of course able to adapt mid fight when he knew he could take Lang's power having worn him out.

Drago was post prime Balboa getting a beating, losing rounds, but able pull off a win with endurance.

Balboa was better in the first Creed fight than the second. In tbe second one he was way down.

He had the title run but hard to tell due to the match making in the Mayweather post 140 style. Looked good, but what did it mean?

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

I doubt it very much as it wasn't on back then.

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That is indeed a valid observation too.

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Originally Posted by Alpha

Has anybody else seen the tournament Top Rank is doing? The Rocky Madness Tournament. I was thinking of doing something similar for the forum before this came out (but using real fighters), but there is never enough forum interest in games so was it is not worth my time.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETe6UQ2U...jpg&name=large

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I think now is as good a time as any to be honest. Everyone is scratching around for shit to do. Im in.

I'm in

Count me in.

We could also do this for the forum and virtually decide who is truly the forum’s hardest.

You’d have to share vital statistics on height, weight, strengths, weaknesses and general fitness.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

We could also do this for the forum and virtually decide who is truly the forum’s hardest.

You’d have to share vital statistics on height, weight, strengths, weaknesses and general fitness.

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With your right hand, I do not think anyone can take you.

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

We could also do this for the forum and virtually decide who is truly the forum’s hardest.

You’d have to share vital statistics on height, weight, strengths, weaknesses and general fitness.

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Something like Top Rank (and I see the WBSS is doing something similar) wouldn't work here, as we just don't have enough members to vote and get a good outcome. I have created a D&D type combat system, where you can choose either Power, Speed, Chin, Stamina and Defense as your ability. You would also get 3 bonuses to use through the 12 round fight. When you start getting into other details like height, weight, weaknesses and fitness, combat can be drawn out and become tedious, and I don't really want to be bogged down with a tonne of dice rolls. I haven't fully tested it yet, but we could have the first knockout tournament and tweak anything for the 2nd season. As I doubt we can embed a dice roller and do live rolls, I will have to complete the rolls and post the results. Let me know what you guys thinks. If we get say 8-12 players we'll do it. You can post an image for you fighters avatar in here or PM me. Give me about a week, as I am just finishing up my greenhouse.

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Originally Posted by Master

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Originally Posted by Mark TKO

We could also do this for the forum and virtually decide who is truly the forum’s hardest.

You’d have to share vital statistics on height, weight, strengths, weaknesses and general fitness.

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With your right hand, I do not think anyone can take you.

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I tend to agree