I’ve only seen Rocky 1&2 as well as Rocky Balboa, but I always thought that Rocky just outlasted his opponents by taking damage rather than exemplary skill. Was Apollo better? He apparently beat Rocky twice.
Apollo was the better boxer and in fact a great boxer. Rocky was tougher.
Apollo was a stand in for Ali and Rocky was inspired by many but Foreman and Frazier were absolutely some of the inspiration.
Primary inspiration was Chuck Wepner who I don’t remember. He was known for being able to take a beating though. Wepner was from Jersey.
Frazier was the Philly fighter and Jake LaMotta was some of the inspiration as the very tough Italian-American that fought a great boxer in Sugar Ray Robinson.
Foreman of course was tough as hell and when his fist landed, the opponent often went down and stayed down.
The “Bayonne Bleeder.”
They didn’t do the high-pitched voice but I remember being impressed a bit by Rocky Balboa and dealing with the ramifications of having been punched in the head too many times. (Edit: This is in response to his style of boxing being to tough it out and take a beating.)
It was a good film, though I’ve largely forgotten it so I suppose it wasn’t all that amazing…
Rocky was a bad boxer. That’s the entire point of the first movie. He was outclassed. He “won” because he had more heart and would not quit. Apollo was the superior boxer and most likely the best boxer out of all of the antagonists. His last fight was supposed to be an exhibition and he was basically retired by then.
The sequels turned him into a superhero. Rocky was a club fighter who didn’t belong in the same ring as the others.
Someone here on the SDMB recently posted the clip of the fight with the Russian guy from Rocky IV, which I had not seen since the 80s, and it is a clinic on terrible boxing technique by Rocky. He keeps his hands low and never covers his head up the whole time. I was thinking, “I know nothing about boxing and I know that’s not how you’re supposed to do it.”
Rocky was actually a better boxer than Chuck in the sense that he got himself into excellent condition. His ability to keep throwing and connecting with devasting power punches in every round was certainly equal in effectiveness to Apollo Creed’s more refined boxing style. As much as the original Rocky story was based on the Ali-Wepner fight the character is more comparable in boxing style and ability to Rocky Marciano. There never was a real Ali-Marciano fight but I suspect it would have resembled the first Creed-Balboa fight a great deal.
The little I’ve seen of Rocky 3 had Apollo basically teaching Rocky footwork, which is pretty important in boxing from what I know.
Apollo was teaching him his defensive style of footwork. Pretty important indeed, but Rocky had excellent footwork for his original style which required him to quickly move in close to deliver heavy blows to Apollo. Most people would say Apollo has a better style for handling varying types of opponents, that doesn’t mean Rocky didn’t have good footwork. His style is similar to the many times champion in many weight classes, Manny Pacquiao. Manny’s footwork allows him to quickly close the distance with his opponents to deliver heavy punches. Manny had some losses against more elegant fighters, but his toughness was a huge factor in his fights. One of his most skilled opponents, Juan Manuel Marquez, a quick fisted fighter with incredible timing and defensive ability still managed to secure a draw and two wins over Pacquiao, and mainly because he was just as tough or even tougher than Pacquiao because he survived the superior power punching of Pacquiao.
I can’t remember where I first heard this: A boxer needs a strong chin and a strong heart, one without the other doesn’t do him any good. Marquez knocked Pacquiao out cold in their final fight. His boxing skills wouldn’t have done the job without the heart and chin of a champion.