Well, I think it was part of his strategy to use his face to block Creed’s punches. And rather effectively, too. I think he blocked almost all of them.
My addition to the discussions, though: Charles Bronson in “Hard Time” going against either Robert Tessier or Nick Dimitri.
Jet Li kicked the crap out of Riggs and Murtagh in one of the Lethal Weapon movies.
It wasn’t quite that one-sided. In fact, had it gone just 30 more seconds Apollo would have lost the fight. But yeah, overall Rocky was outclassed.
Since you didn’t specify movies, Han Solo was hopelessly outclassed by Gallandro in the end of the original Daley-written Han Solo Trilogy, losing a quick-draw match and suffering serious wounds in the process.
Well not being of the military ilk I guess I just assumed that all military people were trained in fifty ways to kill a man with their little finger.
Thanks for clarifying that, next time I see an SAS man in the pub I’m going to ask him outside for a fight.
I remember that bit. 
Speaking of Star Wars, how about Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader in “The Empire Strikes Back?” In the climactic duel, it becomes clear fairly quickly that Luke is completely overmatched by Vader and should have listened to Yoda about completing his training before facing an enemy that formidable.
LW4. I looked it up because I was going to mention this one.
Crossfire in the old Evanier/Spiegle comic book was outclassed more than a few times.
How about Paul Newman versus George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke?
Kirk and Dr. Daystrom, played by William Marshall. Marshall was 6 feet, 5 inches tall. Shatner was maybe 5’8", maybe. It wasn’t so much a fight as a struggle, in which Kirk subdues Daystrom by Daystrom blatantly crouching down and submitting to Shatner… it was very silly.
(I’m not a trek fanatic - my mother dated Marshall off and on for 20 years, starting a few years before he appeared in this episode, and we all had a good laugh about it. I also got to be on the set once while he was filming Blacula. He was a very interesting man.)
Shawn and Gus are routinely outclassed when it comes to combat situations.
That’s one of the things that I like about the show. In their own way, these guys have guts, but they’re by no means fearless warriors. Heck, they have no combat skills to speak of.
Don Draper getting his ass kicked by Duck in Mad Men. Don’s thrown an effective punch or two previously but, when fighting the drunken lout you really want him to take down, Don suffers a pretty embarrassing loss at the end of an even more embarrassing fight.
(Although Don’s hardly a “hero” I think one could safely say that he was the “good guy” in that particular brawl)
I never would’ve thought to mention this in a million years, but I’d just like to say that the Daley novels are still my favorites of the SW novel-EU (which I didn’t delve deep into, after reading a few real stinkers). Daley’s work holds up.
In that movie, I think the real difference was between the basket-hilt Claymore and the fencing rapier.
My money’s on the SAS, unless, like American Special Forces, they have supply clerks and paper pushers who get to wear the “elite” berets due to being assigned to a Spec. Ops. unit.
Heck, as a tanker, I knew three ways to kill people with my index finger: Main Gun (120mm), Coax machine gun (7.62mm), and .45 cal sidearm.
Patricia Arquette vs. James Gandolfini in True Romance.
Llewelyn Moss was outclassed by Anton Chigurh. Who, to be fair, was a walking engine of destruction. Watching him struggle to stay a half step ahead of Chigurh was awesomely suspenseful.
All 4 of the replicants smacked Deckard around.
James Bond had a villain’s henchman in nearly every movie that was physically superior. Maxwell Smart made fun of this often.
Robin Hood against the Sheriff of Notingham in Robin And Marion
Frank Sinatra in all his fights in **From Here To Eternity **
Harry Potter vs. He Who Must Not Be Named - Harry is hopelessly outmatched every time. He only wins because his opponent can’t resist toying with him, or because of blind luck (as he himself points out).
Both of the main characters in My Bodyguard were outclassed.
Both won their fights, of course…
Creed won on points in a split decision, which means one of the three guys scoring the fight figured Rocky was ahead. (And when he sees his chance in the penultimate round, our hero intently fires off the rib-breaking shot that’s followed by Creed’s corner arguing to stop the fight because of the champ’s internal bleeding; both men wind up in wheelchairs during their hospital stay thereafter.)
IMHO, what’s especially interesting about their first fight is how the rematch plays out in ROCKY II: Creed again breaks Rocky’s nose in the first round, again keeps dropping the guy with knockdown blows, and is again leading on points going into the final round – and (as we’re repeatedly told, in exposition from multiple sources) could presumably again rack up the win by playing it safe instead of going for the knockout; was Rocky equally outclassed in that fight?
The Terminator (The T-101, also called T-800 and T-850 in other sources) is shown to be essentially useless in a straight up fight against the T-1000 in Terminator 2.