Apollo Creed: The Champion, His Son and His Death in Rocky IV

Apollo Creed is the showman heavyweight champion of the Rocky saga, played by Carl Weathers in Rocky (1976), directed by John G. Avildsen, and in Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV, all directed by Sylvester Stallone. The credits give him a single name, Apollo Creed, with no alternate billing.

His introduction in the first film sets up everything that follows. Apollo plans a Bicentennial title bout in Philadelphia, but his scheduled challenger is injured about five weeks before the date. Looking for a publicity angle, he picks a local club fighter because of the nickname the Italian Stallion, and promoter George Jergens puts up a purse of $150,000. That fighter is Rocky Balboa, which answers a question many viewers ask: why did Apollo Creed choose Rocky? He needed a hook that would sell the event.

On New Year's Day Apollo arrives with a showy entrance, which tells you how he treats the whole night. His family is part of the saga too. His wife is Mary Anne Creed, credited to Sylvia Meals in Rocky II, and his son is Adonis Creed, introduced in Creed (2015) as Apollo's child from an affair. Mary Anne takes the boy into her home when he is in a juvenile facility in Los Angeles.

Apollo Creed moves from opponent to rival to trainer across four films, and each step changes how the champion sees the man he first treated as a gimmick.

In Rocky 1976, both men go all fifteen rounds. Rocky knocks Apollo down in the first round, Apollo then fights in earnest, and both finish badly hurt, with Rocky's eye swollen nearly shut and cut open so he can see. Apollo wins a split decision, tells Rocky there will be no rematch, and Rocky says he does not want one.

In Rocky 2, Apollo edges out Rocky in their first fight, but accusations that it was fixed leave him stung, and he taunts Rocky in public to force a rematch. Rocky has been warned that an eye injury could cost him his sight. In the rematch Apollo plans a quick knockout, but the fight reaches the fifteenth round with Apollo ahead on points. Both men hit the canvas in the last exchange, Rocky beats the count at nine, and Apollo cannot rise in time.

In Rocky 3, Apollo offers to coach Rocky after Clubber Lang takes the title and Mickey Goldmill dies. They work in a gym in Los Angeles, where Apollo and trainer Duke teach Rocky footwork, speed and skill. Rocky wins the rematch at Madison Square Garden, then repays Apollo with a private sparring match, and both throw the first punch at the same moment.

How old is Apollo Creed in Rocky 3? The film never states his age, and no studio or trade source gives an official birth year for the character, so any number would be a guess. What the film does establish is the date: it opens in 1981, with Rocky five years into his reign as heavyweight champion.

In Rocky 4, Apollo is retired when Ivan Drago arrives from the Soviet Union, and he takes an exhibition match in Las Vegas to defend American pride. His age is not given there either, so the question of how old Apollo Creed is when he dies has no sourced answer.

Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa share the central relationship of the saga before the Creed films begin, and it runs through three stages: champion and long shot, bitter rivals, then close friends.

The bond with Rocky is the one fans search for most. In the first film Apollo uses Rocky as a showpiece. In the second he cannot let the narrow result stand, and his public taunts pull Rocky out of retirement. By the third film Apollo is the man who rebuilds Rocky after Mickey's death, working beside Duke, which reverses where they started. By Rocky IV they are plainly friends, and Rocky works Apollo's corner as the Drago match begins.

The family ties extend the story. Mary Anne Creed, Apollo's widow, shapes the next generation: in Creed (2015) she takes young Adonis Johnson into her home. In Creed 2, she persuades Rocky to help Adonis prepare for the rematch with Viktor Drago, the son of the man who killed her husband. Rocky also trains Adonis in Creed 2015 and later becomes godfather to Adonis's daughter Amara. Apollo's rivalry with Rocky, in other words, passes down as a mentorship.

Apollo Creed dies in the ring in Rocky IV, killed by Ivan Drago in a Las Vegas exhibition bout, and that is the answer to the cause of death question.

Drago, a Soviet fighter backed by high tech training and drugs, hits him so hard that Apollo does not get up. Rocky has been in the corner and is left grieving and guilty. He decides he must fight Drago himself, and the bout is set for Christmas Day in the Soviet Union with Rocky putting up his own money. He trains in a remote Siberian cabin with Duke, leaving Adrian and his family behind, and he wins by knockout in the last round in Moscow.

Apollo's death keeps echoing through the later films. In Creed 2, Ivan Drago returns from Ukraine with his son Viktor and a promoter sets up a title fight against Adonis, Apollo's son. After the rematch in Moscow, where Ivan throws in the towel, Adonis and Bianca visit Apollo's grave with baby Amara, and Adonis makes peace with his father's legacy.

In my opinion, Apollo's best scenes show a champion who wants the crowd but, in time, learns to respect the person across from him. The picks below are mine, and a different fan could rank them differently.

First, the first round of Rocky (1976). Apollo comes in with a showy entrance and Rocky knocks him down, so the fight he treated as an exhibition becomes a real contest. It could be argued that this single knockdown is what changes Apollo, because every later scene with Rocky grows out of that surprise.

Second, the Rocky II rematch finish. Both fighters fall in the fifteenth round, Rocky gets up at nine, and Apollo cannot. Losing the title this way is not a villain's comeuppance, and I read it as a champion beaten by a single count.

Third, the Los Angeles gym in Rocky III. Apollo teaching Rocky footwork and speed, with trainer Duke beside him, is the clearest sign that the rivalry has become friendship. The closing sparring match, with both men throwing the first punch together, pays it off.

Last, the Rocky IV exhibition. It is the most painful scene, because the film builds Apollo's pride (a retired champion defending American pride) and then removes him. As for what if Apollo Creed never died, that is only speculation, but, without that fight, Rocky does not go to Siberia and Moscow, and Adonis Creed's story would start from a very different place.