Drago VS Creed Rematch!(Fight night Champion)
Ivan Vasilyevich Drago (Russian: Иван Васильевич Драго, pronounced [ɪˈvan ˈdraɡə]) is a Soviet-Russian fictional character from the Rocky film series. He first appears in the 1985 film Rocky IV, in which he is the central antagonist and rival of Rocky Balboa. Drago was responsible for the death of Apollo Creed after he brutally defeated him in their exhibition match. He also appears in the 2018 film Creed II, in which he is the main antagonist and serves as the trainer to his son Viktor. He is portrayed by Swedish actor and real-life martial artist Dolph Lundgren. A poll of former heavyweight champions and prominent boxing writers ranked Drago as the third-best fighter in the Rocky film series.[1]
Ivan Drago is an Olympic gold medalist[2] and an amateur boxing champion from the Soviet Union, who had an amateur record of 100–0–0 wins (100 KO). He is billed at 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) and 261 pounds (118 kg). Drago is carefully fitted and trained to be the consummate fighter. His heart rate and punching power are constantly measured via computers during his workouts.[3] Drago is seen receiving intramuscular injections in the movie, implied to be anabolic steroids, though the actual nature of the injected solution is never explicitly stated; instead, Ludmilla, his wife, states as a joke that Drago is like Popeye and eats spinach every day.[2]
Ivan Drago was forced to leave Russia and move to Ukraine to look after his son Viktor Drago following his loss to Rocky.[4]
Commentaries on Drago often characterize him as a hyperbolic representation of Soviet power in the context of the latter part of the Cold War.[5][6] This symbolism is particularly clear in some lines in the film, including the radio announcer who says, "Ivan Drago is a man with an entire country in his corner."[7] Others have characterized Drago in contrast to Rocky, the prototypically U.S. hero, and that Drago's defeat represents a crumbling of the Soviet regime.[8]
Some, however, have noticed Drago's individualism. Toward the conclusion of the fourth film, when Drago is confronted by a Communist Party functionary, the fighter from the collectivist USSR screams at the top of his lungs, "I fight to win FOR ME!! FOR ME!!!" Drago wants to win, but not for the crowd, not for his nation, not for the communist party, not for the Politburo. He wants to win for himself.[9]
In 2004, The Washington Times referenced Ivan Drago in a comparison of the Soviet-U.S. Olympic rivalry of the Cold War: "Nationalism makes the Olympics worth watching. Jingoism makes them worth caring about." The Times's Patrick Hruby noted that without an embodiment of the rivalry like Ivan Drago, the Olympics were not as fun.[10]
Russia's "goodwill ambassador" Katya Lycheva of the 1980s objected to the character Ivan Drago, claiming that the film uses him "to vilify the Russian people".[11]
Apollo Creed is a fictional character from the Rocky films, played by Carl Weathers. He serves as the main antagonist in Rocky and Rocky II and also appears in Rocky III and Rocky IV. He is a tough but agile boxer who is, when the series begins, the undisputed heavyweight world champion. The character was inspired by the real-life champion Muhammad Ali, having what one author remarked as the same "brash, vocal, [and] theatrical" personality. The film's writer and star Sylvester Stallone stated, "[Jack] Johnson served as the inspiration for the character of Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies";[1] the character is loosely based on a combination of Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, and Johnson.[2]
In Rocky, Creed essentially cleans out his division of serious challengers (the few remaining being either injured or unavailable) and magnanimously decides to fight local journeyman Balboa for the fan spectacle, as well as the implied symbolism of fighting a man with an Italian background on "this country's biggest birthday."[7] In the film and its sequel, Balboa and Creed find themselves basically evenly matched in the ring, ending up friends by the third movie. Creed had multiple nicknames, including most prominently "The Master of Disaster".[3] Others include "The King of Sting", "The Dancing Destroyer", "The Prince of Punch", and "The Count of Monte Fisto". A 2013 poll of former heavyweight champions and boxing writers, including former WBA heavyweight star James "Bonecrusher" Smith, ranked Creed as the second-best boxer in the Rocky series, second only to Rocky himself, having only 2 losses: one to Rocky and the other, Ivan Drago, who killed him in their fight.[8]