Rocky and Creed Collection

Rocky

To mark the upcoming United States Bicentennial, heavyweight boxing world champion Apollo Creed plans to hold a title bout in Philadelphia. However, he is informed five weeks from the fight date that his scheduled opponent, Mac Lee Green, is unable to compete due to an injured hand. All other potential replacements are either booked or unable to get into shape in time. Having invested heavily into the fight, Apollo decides to give a local contender a chance to challenge him.
He selects Rocky Balboa, an Italian-American journeyman southpaw boxer living in poverty, who primarily fights in small gyms and works as a collector for a Mafia loan shark. Rocky is chosen on the basis of his nickname, "The Italian Stallion", because Apollo feels that the name is most suitable for marketing purposes. Rocky meets with promoter George Jergens and agrees to the fight, which will pay him $150,000. Rocky puts himself through several weeks of unorthodox and improvised training, such as using sides of beef as punching bags.
He is later approached by Mickey Goldmill, a former bantamweight fighter-turned-trainer whose gym Rocky frequents, about further training. Rocky is not willing initially, as Mickey has not shown much interest in helping him before and saw him as a wasted talent, but eventually he accepts the offer.
Rocky builds a romantic relationship with Adrianna "Adrian" Pennino, a shy woman who is working part-time at the J&M Tropical Fish pet store. Adrian's brother and Rocky's best friend, Paulie, sets his sister up on a date with Rocky. She initially rejects his advances but consents to each subsequent step of the date when he continues to ask. Paulie also offers to work as a cornerman with him for the fight, an offer Rocky turns down. Paulie becomes jealous of Rocky's success, but Rocky placates him by agreeing to advertise the meat packing business where Paulie works as part of the fight. Rocky trains extensively for the match, while Apollo is unconcerned and puts more effort into promotion than training. The night before the match, Rocky visits the Spectrum and begins to lose confidence. He confesses to Adrian that he does not believe he can win but strives to go the distance against Apollo, which no other fighter has done, to prove himself.
On New Year's Day, the fight is held with Apollo making a dramatic entrance dressed as George Washington and then Uncle Sam. Taking advantage of his overconfidence, Rocky knocks him down in the first round—the first time that Apollo has ever been knocked down. Humbled and worried, Apollo takes Rocky more seriously for the rest of the fight, which goes on for the full fifteen rounds, with both combatants sustaining various injuries: Rocky, with hits to the head and swollen eyes, requires his right eyelid to be cut to restore his vision, while Apollo, with internal bleeding and a broken rib, struggles to breathe. As the fight concludes, Apollo's skill is countered by Rocky's stamina, toughness and will. As the final bell sounds, Apollo tells Rocky there "ain't gonna be no rematch". Rocky replies that he does not want one.
As the ring is flooded with reporters and excited fans, Rocky calls out repeatedly for Adrian, who makes her way into the ring. As Jergens declares Apollo the winner by virtue of a split decision, Rocky and Adrian embrace and profess their love for each other, unconcerned with the outcome of the fight.

Rocky II

On New Year's Day 1976, world heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed has successfully defended his title in a split decision against challenger Rocky Balboa. He and Rocky are taken to the same hospital. Despite their agreement that there would be no rematch, Apollo challenges Rocky again that night to prove that Rocky going the distance with him was a fluke, but Rocky declines and retires from professional boxing. Balboa's girlfriend, Adrian, supports his choice as do his doctors who go on to reveal that Rocky will require surgery for a detached retina, a condition that could lead to permanent blindness. In a private moment, Rocky goes to see a recuperating Apollo, and asks whether Apollo gave his all in the fight; Apollo confirms that he did.
After Rocky is released from the hospital, he enjoys the benefits of his newfound celebrity status. An agent sees Rocky as a potential endorsement and sponsorship goldmine, and his sudden wealth encourages him to propose to Adrian; she happily accepts, and they marry in a small ceremony. Soon after, Adrian reveals that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Apollo, fueled by hate mail claiming he fixed the fight in order to protect his reign as champ, becomes obsessed with the idea that a rematch is the only way to discredit Rocky's performance. Determined to rectify his boxing career's only blemish, Apollo demands his team do whatever necessary to goad Rocky out of retirement, despite the pleas of his friend and trainer Tony "Duke" Evers, that Rocky's ability to absorb punishment is too dangerous for his chances to successfully defend the title a second time.
Rocky at first seems unaffected by Apollo's smear campaign, but his limited education and illiteracy soon lead him into financial problems. After several unsuccessful attempts to find employment, Rocky visits Mickey Goldmill, his trainer and manager, at his gym to talk about the possibility of facing Apollo. Mickey declines out of concern for Rocky's health, but he changes his mind after Apollo publicly insults Rocky. Adrian confronts Rocky about the danger of returning to boxing and reminds him of the risk to his eyesight, but he retorts that fighting is all he knows. Adrian backs down but refuses to support him.
Rocky and Mickey begin training, but Rocky is unfocused due to Adrian's disapproval. Adrian's brother, Paulie, confronts his sister about not supporting her husband, but Adrian faints during the confrontation and is rushed to the hospital, where she goes into labor. Despite being born prematurely, the baby is healthy, but Adrian falls into a coma. Rocky blames himself for what happened and refuses to leave her bedside until she wakes up, and will not go to see his new baby until the baby can be together with his mother. When Adrian comes out of her coma she finds Rocky by her bedside, and the couple is soon shown their new baby boy, who they name Robert "Rocky Jr". Adrian gives her blessing to the rematch and Rocky quickly gets into shape for the fight.
On Thanksgiving, the night of the match, Apollo makes a public goal of beating Rocky in no more than two rounds to prove the first match going the distance was a fluke. Unlike the first fight, Apollo has trained heavily. In order to protect his vulnerable eye, Rocky opts to fight right-handed rather than his natural southpaw, but this leaves him at a major disadvantage, as he is knocked down twice by Apollo and outclassed for much of the fight. Going into the fifteenth and final round, Apollo is well ahead on points and only needs to stay away from Rocky to win the fight by decision. However, Apollo wants to win by knock-out in order to erase any doubts about his superiority and ignores Duke's desperate pleas to stay back and fight from distance.
In the final round, Rocky switches back to his natural stance and, in dramatic fashion, unleashes a series of counter punches on Apollo. Both men, exhausted, trade punches until Rocky is able to gain the upper hand and knock Apollo down. The blow causes Rocky to also lose his balance and fall at the same time. As both men struggle to regain their feet, Rocky is able to will himself up at the count of 9 while Apollo collapses from exhaustion, giving Rocky the win by knockout and making him the new world heavyweight champion. Rocky then gives an impassioned speech to the crowd and holds the belt over his head with a message for Adrian, who is watching the fight on television: "Yo, Adrian, I did it!"

Rocky III

In 1981, 5 years after winning the world heavyweight championship against Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa has had a string of ten successful title defenses, and his fame, wealth, and celebrity profile have increased. Rocky's manager, Mickey Goldmill, worriedly eyes a young and powerful contender rapidly rising through the ranks, James "Clubber" Lang. While unveiling a statue of himself at the stairway by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rocky begins to announce his retirement, but is cut short when Lang, now the number-one contender, publicly challenges him. Lang accuses Rocky of intentionally accepting challenges from lesser opponents, and goads Rocky into accepting his fight for the title.
Mickey initially wants no part of it; pressed by Rocky, Mickey confesses that he handpicked the opponents for Rocky's title defenses to spare him from another beating of the kind that Apollo gave him in their rematch. He explains that Lang is young, powerful and "hungry"; by contrast, Rocky is "civilized" and no longer has the stamina and strength to fight a boxer of Lang's caliber. Mickey tries to talk Rocky out of the fight but Rocky, shattered by the realization that all of his fights have been stacked in his favor, convinces Mickey to work with him for one last bout. Despite his promise to Mickey to "live in the gym", Rocky insists on allowing the public to watch him train in a crowded hotel ballroom filled with distractions. In contrast, Lang trains alone with ruthless determination and vigor.
Lang and Rocky meet at Philadelphia's Spectrum on August 15, 1981. Pandemonium erupts backstage as Mickey is violently shoved by Lang, resulting in a heart attack due to an underlying heart condition evidenced during Rocky's charity fight with pro wrestler Thunderlips. Distraught, Rocky wants to call the match off, but Mickey urges him on while he receives medical care in the dressing room. Rocky's lack of preparation is worsened by his concern for Mickey, preventing him from fully concentrating on the fight. The match begins with Rocky pounding Lang with several huge blows, looking for an early knockout, but Lang quickly recovers and takes charge, dominating Rocky and finishing him off with a haymaker left hook in the second round, winning the world heavyweight championship. After the match, Rocky tells a dying Mickey that the match ended in a second-round knockout without saying who the victor was. Mickey tells Rocky, "I love ya, kid", and dies. Rocky, lapsing into severe depression, mourns over Mickey's death.
Stopping by Mickey's closed gym, the forlorn Rocky encounters his former rival Apollo, who witnessed the match as a guest analyst. Apollo offers to help train Rocky for a rematch against Lang in exchange for a future favor, which Rocky accepts. Apollo then takes Rocky to the gym where he once trained, Tough Gym in Los Angeles. Apollo becomes frustrated by Rocky's lack of effort, as the latter is still haunted by nightmares of Lang and unable to train without Mickey by his side. Rocky regains his focus, though, after Adrian helps him come to terms with Mickey's death. Apollo and his manager, Tony "Duke" Evers, infuse Rocky's undisciplined brawling style with more of Apollo's trademark footwork, skill, and speed, rebuilding him into a more complete fighter.
After months of training, the rematch takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Apollo lends Rocky the American flag trunks that he wore during their first match. At the outset of the match, Rocky sprints from his corner, battering Lang with a level of skill and spirit that no one ever expected. Rocky completely dominates the first round, leaving Lang enraged and bewildered after the bell. Lang gains the upper hand in the second round, and Rocky adopts an entirely different strategy that angers and confuses Apollo by intentionally taking a beating from Lang, even getting knocked down twice, all the while taunting Lang that he cannot knock him out. By the third round, Lang, who is used to winning matches swiftly with knockouts in the early rounds, loses his temper and starts throwing punches wildly as Rocky taunts him and Lang gradually runs out of stamina. With Lang rattled and vulnerable, Rocky strikes back with a flurry of punches, culminating in a brutal knockout to reclaim the heavyweight championship.
Afterward, Rocky honors Apollo's favor: a third match, albeit this time in the form of a friendly sparring match at Mighty Mick's Gym. The film concludes with the two simultaneously throwing the first punch, showing two equally skilled athletes facing each other not as rivals, but as friends.

Rocky IV

In 1985, Russian boxer and Soviet Army Captain Ivan Drago arrives in the United States from the Soviet Union with his wife Ludmilla, his trainers and his manager, Nicolai Koloff. Koloff takes every opportunity to promote Drago's athleticism as a hallmark of Soviet superiority. Motivated by patriotism and a desire to step back in the ring, former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed challenges Drago to an exhibition fight. Rocky Balboa has reservations about his much larger opponent and about Apollo coming out of retirement but agrees to help train Apollo for the match.
The boxing exhibition takes place at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Apollo enters the ring in an over-the-top patriotic entrance with James Brown performing "Living in America", complete with showgirls. The bout starts tamely with Apollo landing several punches that are ineffective against Drago, but Drago suddenly retaliates with devastating effects. By the end of the first round, Rocky and Apollo's trainer, Duke Evers, plead with him to stop the match, but Apollo refuses to do so. Drago aggressively pummels him in the second round. Apollo falls after a particularly savage blow and lies twitching on the ground. After the match is called in Drago's favor, he displays no contrition, commenting to the assembled media: "If he dies, he dies." Apollo dies as a result of his injuries.
Rocky decides to challenge Drago himself, but has to surrender his championship to do so. Drago's camp agrees to an unsanctioned 15-round fight in Moscow on Christmas Day, an arrangement meant to protect Drago from the threats of violence he has been receiving in the United States. Rocky travels to the Soviet Union without his wife Adrian due to her disapproval of the match, setting up his training base in a remote cabin in Siberia with only Duke and Paulie to accompany him while being constantly watched by KGB Agents. Duke opens up to Rocky, stating that he actually raised Apollo and that his death felt like a father losing his son, and expresses his faith in Rocky that he will emerge victorious. To prepare for the match, Drago uses high-tech equipment, a team of trainers and doctors monitoring his every movement, and regular doses of anabolic steroids. Rocky, on the other hand, does roadwork in deep snow over mountainous terrain and workouts utilizing antiquated farm equipment. Adrian arrives unexpectedly five days before the fight to give Rocky her support.
On the night of the match, Rocky enters to a hostile jeering crowd. Drago is introduced with cheers and an elaborate patriotic ceremony, with the Soviet General Secretary and Politburo in attendance. In contrast to his match with Apollo, Drago immediately goes on the offensive. Rocky takes a pounding in the first round, but toward the end of the second round he lands a right hook that cuts Drago's left eye. Between rounds, Duke encourages Rocky by telling him he's proven Drago is only human, and Drago comments to his trainers that Rocky "is like a piece of iron."
The two boxers spend the next dozen rounds trading blows, with Rocky managing to hold his ground despite Drago's best efforts. As the 12th round begins, the Russian crowd starts to cheer for Rocky. After Koloff berates Drago for not finishing the fight and seeing the crowd turn on him, Drago rebels, throwing him from the ring and directly addressing the Soviet leadership, stating he fights only for himself. In the final round, with both fighters exhausted, Rocky unleashes a series of blows that KOs Drago, avenging Apollo's death.
Rocky gives a victory speech, acknowledging the crowd's initial disdain of him, but points out that it changed to respect during the fight. He compares it to the wider disdain between Russians and Americans, except that he and the crowd have come to respect and admire each other during the course of the fight. Rocky adds that the crowd has seen "two guys killin' each other, but I guess that's better than 20 million". Rocky finally declares, "If I can change, and you can change, then everybody can change!" The General Secretary stands and passionately applauds Rocky, and his aides follow suit. Rocky ends his speech by wishing his son Rocky Jr. a Merry Christmas, and throws his arms into the air in victory as the crowd applauds.

Rocky V

After his victory over Ivan Drago in Moscow, Rocky Balboa finds himself experiencing physical trauma from the fight. He returns with his wife Adrian, brother-in-law Paulie, and trainer Tony "Duke" Evers to the United States, where Rocky's son Robert Jr. greets the group. At a press conference, boxing promoter George Washington Duke attempts to goad Rocky into fighting his boxer, Union Cane, who is the top-rated challenger, but Rocky declines.
When the group returns home, however, Rocky and Adrian discover they are bankrupt after Paulie was fooled into signing a "power of attorney" over to Rocky's accountant, who embezzled all of his money on unfavorable real estate deals and neglected to pay Rocky's taxes over the previous six years. He is unable to secure a merchandising deal due to his history as a loan shark resurfacing, and his mansion has been mortgaged by $400,000, but his attorney tells Rocky that it is fixable with a few more fights. Rocky initially accepts the fight with Cane, but Adrian urges him to see a doctor, and he is diagnosed with cavum septi pellucidi.
Reluctantly, Rocky retires from boxing. His home and belongings are sold to pay the debt and the Balboas move back to their old working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia. Rocky visits Mighty Mick's Gym (willed to his son by his old trainer Mickey Goldmill), which has fallen into disrepair. Seeing a vision of himself and Mickey from years past, Rocky draws inspiration to become a trainer himself and reopens the gym. One day, Paulie and Rocky meet a young fighter from Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn. Under Rocky's management, Tommy rises to become a top contender. Distracted with Tommy's training, Rocky neglects Robert, who is being bullied at school. After learning to defend himself, Robert falls in with the wrong crowd and becomes withdrawn from his family.
Union Cane wins the vacant world heavyweight title, but still wanting to do business with Rocky, Duke showers Tommy with luxuries and promises him that he is the only path to a shot at the title. Rocky insists dealing with Duke will end badly, causing Tommy to desert him. Adrian attempts to comfort Rocky; when he frustratedly retorts that training Tommy had renewed his sense of purpose, she pointedly tells Rocky that Tommy never had his heart. Realizing that his family is his top priority, Rocky apologizes to Adrian and the two embrace. Rocky then apologizes to Robert and they mend their relationship.
Tommy defeats Cane for the heavyweight title with a first-round knockout, but the spectators reject him for abandoning Rocky and crediting his success solely to Duke. Consequently, the fans and media denounce Tommy as a "paper champion" because he did not win the title from Balboa. Duke convinces Tommy that he needs to secure a fight with Rocky to refute such a notion. Duke and Tommy show up at the local bar with a live television crew to goad Rocky into accepting a title fight. Rocky declines and tries to reason with him, but Tommy calls him weak, prompting Paulie to stand up for Rocky. When Tommy punches Paulie, Rocky challenges Tommy to a street fight on the spot; despite Duke's objections, Tommy accepts.
Initially knocked to the ground by Rocky's flurry of punches, Tommy gets up and attacks Rocky from behind, punching him to the ground. Rocky experiences nightmarish visions of Drago before a vision of Mickey urges him to get up and continue the fight. When Robert and Adrian see the brawl being televised, they rush to the back alley to cheer for Rocky. With Robert, Paulie, Adrian and the neighborhood crowd cheering him on, Rocky utilizes his street-fighting skills and defeats Tommy. While Tommy is escorted away by the police, Duke threatens to sue Rocky if he touches him. Rocky briefly hesitates before knocking him onto the hood of a car, defiantly replying "Sue me for what?"
Months later, Rocky and Robert climb up the Rocky Steps, visit his statue, and are about to go inside and explore the Philadelphia Museum of Art when Rocky gives his son Rocky Marciano's cufflink, which Mickey had gifted to Rocky years earlier.

Rocky Balboa

Sixteen years after his street fight with Tommy "The Machine" Gunn, Rocky Balboa, now approaching sixty years of age, is long retired from boxing and lives a quiet life in Philadelphia as a widower, having lost his wife Adrian to cancer four years prior. He now runs a small but successful Italian restaurant named after her, where he regales patrons with tales from his past. He also battles personal demons involving his grief over Adrian's death and his eroding relationship with his son Robert, now a moderately successful young corporate accountant. Paulie Pennino, Rocky's best friend and brother-in-law, continues to support him whenever he can, but is guilt-ridden over his past poor treatment of Adrian and accuses Rocky of living in the past.
Late one night, Rocky meets a woman named Marie, who was once a troublesome young girl Rocky had escorted home thirty years earlier. Marie now is a single parent of a teenage son named Stephenson and nicknamed "Steps", born out of wedlock. Rocky's relationship with Marie quickly blossoms over the following weeks and he meets and bonds with Steps, providing him with a much-needed buffer for his anguish.
Meanwhile, on the professional boxing circuit, Mason "The Line" Dixon reigns as the undefeated yet unpopular heavyweight world champion, often ridiculed for having never fought a true contender. This leads to tension with the public and his promoters and encourages him to return to his roots: the small gym he first trained in and his old trainer Martin, who sagely tells him that, inevitably, he will earn back his respect through a true opponent that will test him. ESPN later broadcasts a computer simulation of a fight between a younger Rocky and Mason – likened to a modern-day version of The Super Fight – that ends in a disputed KO victory for Rocky, further riling the champ. In contrast, the simulation inspires Rocky to take up boxing again, an intention that goes public when he successfully renews his boxing license. Dixon's promoters pitch the idea of holding a charity exhibition bout at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to bolster Dixon's floundering popularity. In the midst of this chaos, Paulie is laid off from his job.
With some hesitation, both men agree to the match, creating a media buzz that stabs at Rocky's age and Dixon's credibility. Robert later makes an effort to discourage Rocky from fighting, blaming his own personal failings on his father's celebrity shadow, but Rocky rebukes him with a rousing speech: in order to succeed in life, "it ain't about how hard you hit – it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward!"; blaming others is the coward's way. The next day, Robert meets Rocky at Adrian's grave and reconciles with him, having quit his job to be at Rocky's side.
Rocky sets straight to training with Apollo Creed's old trainer, Duke Evers, who quickly surmises that the aging Rocky can only compete by building his strength and punching power as much as possible. Alongside Robert, Paulie, and Steps, he uses the same unorthodox training methods that he used for his first fight with Apollo, such as using sides of beef as punching bags. On the day of the match, Dixon easily dominates the first round, only to injure his left hand on Rocky's hip in the second. Rocky then makes a dramatic comeback, knocking Mason down, and surprising the audience with his prowess and chin despite his age.
The two combatants beat each other severely throughout the full 10 rounds, ending with both men still standing, although Rocky gets the last punch. Rocky thanks an appreciative Dixon for the match and tells him that he is a great champion, while the audience applauds the two fighters. The result is announced as Rocky exits the ring with his family and friends: a win for Dixon by a close split decision, but Rocky does not mind the outcome, and the crowd gives him a final standing ovation.
Rocky returns home and visits Adrian's grave again, thanking her for helping him in spirit and saying "Yo Adrian, we did it. We did it."

Creed

In 1998, Adonis "Donnie" Johnson—the son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed via an extramarital affair—is serving time in a Los Angeles youth detention center when Apollo's widow, Mary Anne Creed, visits and offers to take him in.
In the present time, Adonis is in Tijuana, Mexico, preparing for his match in an amateur boxing bout hosted in a bar. Upon returning from his latest fight, Adonis resigns from the Smith Boardley Financial Group to pursue his dream of becoming a professional boxer. Adonis auditions at Los Angeles' elite Delphi Boxing Academy, managed by family friend Tony "Little Duke" Evers Jr., the son of Apollo's trainer Tony "Duke" Evers, but is turned down. This rejection is further emphasized as Adonis is beaten in a sparring match by heavyweight champion and #2-pound-for-pound Danny "Wheelman" Wheeler after he publicly challenges the whole gym to prove himself, betting his 1967 Ford Mustang that no one can get a clean head shot on him. Mary Anne vehemently opposes his aspirations, remembering how her husband was killed in the ring by Ivan Drago thirty years ago. Undaunted, Adonis moves to Philadelphia in hopes of getting in touch with his father's old rival-turned-friend, former heavyweight champion, Rocky Balboa.
Adonis meets Rocky at a restaurant known as Adrian's, named in honor of his deceased wife, and asks Rocky to become his trainer. Rocky is reluctant to return to boxing due to having bad prior experiences as a trainer, but eventually agrees. Adonis asks him about the "secret third fight" between him and Apollo just after Apollo helped Rocky regain the heavyweight title, and Rocky reveals that Apollo won. Adonis trains at the Front Street Gym, with several of Rocky's longtime friends as cornermen. He also finds a love interest in Bianca, an aspiring singer and songwriter in the early stages of progressive hearing loss.
Adonis, using his biological mother's surname, Johnson, and the fight name "Hollywood", defeats local fighter Leo "The Lion" Sporino, which upsets the opposing corner. This leads to the opposing side leaking the news that Adonis is Apollo's illegitimate son. Rocky receives a call from the handlers of World Light Heavyweight Champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, who is being forced into retirement by an impending prison term. He offers to make Adonis his final challenger—provided that he fights using his father's surname, Creed. Adonis is hesitant at first, wanting to forge his own legacy. However, he eventually agrees with a little convincing from Bianca.
While helping Adonis train, Rocky suddenly collapses and is admitted to the hospital. Through further testing, he is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He is unwilling to undergo chemotherapy, citing its inability to save Adrian when she had ovarian cancer. The fact that his best friend and brother-in-law Paulie Pennino has now died along with all of his other friends as well as his estrangement from his son consign him to accept his eventual death. Adonis later finds out and urges him to seek treatment, but leaves in frustration after Rocky refuses and tells him he never truly believed they were a family. This causes him to lash out and get in a fight with an attendee at Bianca's concert after he compares him to his father, and is sent in jail. After being bailed out, Adonis refuses to train for his fight with Conlan if Rocky doesn't accept treatment, which Rocky finally agrees to.
Adonis fights Conlan at Goodison Park in Conlan's hometown of Liverpool, and many parallels emerge between the ensuing bout and Apollo and Rocky's first fight forty years earlier. First, before entering the ring, Adonis receives a present from Mary Anne – new American flag trunks similar to the ones Apollo and later Rocky wore. Additionally, to the surprise of nearly everyone, Adonis gives Conlan all he can handle. Conlan knocks Adonis down, but Adonis recovers to knock Conlan down for the first time in his career. Adonis goes the distance, but Conlan wins on a split decision. However, Adonis has won the respect of Conlan and the crowd through his efforts. As Max Kellerman puts it while calling the fight for HBO, "Ricky Conlan wins the fight, Adonis Creed wins the night." Conlan tells Adonis that he is the future of the light heavyweight division.
The film ends with Adonis and a frail but improving Rocky climbing the steps outside the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Creed II

Three years after his loss to "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, Adonis "Donnie" Creed, alongside his trainer Rocky Balboa, who has beaten his cancer, has won six straight bouts, culminating in a victory over Danny "Stuntman" Wheeler to win the WBC World Heavyweight Championship, and reclaimed his 1967 Ford Mustang which he had lost to Wheeler in a bet. Now a worldwide star, Adonis proposes marriage to his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor, who accepts. Bianca suggests starting a new life together in Los Angeles, but Adonis is reluctant to leave Philadelphia and Rocky.
In Ukraine, Ivan Drago, the former Soviet boxer who killed Adonis' late father Apollo during a bout in 1985, has been broke and destitute since losing to Rocky that year, and seeks to regain glory. Assisted by promoter Buddy Marcelle, Ivan pits his son, Viktor, against Adonis. When Rocky, out of fear for Adonis possibly suffering the same fate as Apollo, refuses to support Adonis' acceptance of Viktor's challenge, Adonis leaves for Los Angeles.
Adonis and Bianca settle in a luxurious apartment in Los Angeles close to Adonis' adoptive mother and Apollo's widow, Mary Anne. As they adjust to their new life and prepare for the upcoming match, Bianca learns that she is pregnant. Adonis recruits Tony "Little Duke" Evers, son of his father's trainer and later Rocky's trainer Tony "Duke" Evers, to start training him. However, Adonis becomes overwhelmed by his life's recent changes, rushes into the match in Barclays Center unprepared, and is badly injured by Viktor. Viktor, however, is disqualified for hitting Adonis while he is down, allowing Adonis to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Nevertheless, Viktor becomes extremely popular in Russia and wins a series of fights with top billing.
With his body and ego shattered, Adonis becomes increasingly disconnected from Bianca. Mary Anne reaches out to Rocky, who reconciles with Adonis and agrees to train him for a rematch against Viktor, who is suffering torturous physical tests at Ivan's hands. Bianca gives birth to a daughter, Amara, and Rocky is named her godfather; Amara is born deaf, inheriting her lack of hearing from her mother's progressive hearing disorder.
While Viktor taunts Adonis publicly, he faces constant pressure from his father behind the scenes, who enjoys the attention of the media and various Russian delegates. At a state dinner, he and Ivan encounter Ludmilla, his mother and Ivan's ex-wife, for the first time in several years after she abandoned them following Ivan's loss to Rocky. Enraged at the sight of her, Viktor storms out of the dinner and chastises Ivan for seeking approval from those who cast them out. Meanwhile, Rocky and Little Duke retrain Adonis in a decrepit location in the California desert, focusing on fighting from within and training Adonis' body to absorb the heavy impact he will receive from Viktor in the ring.
In Moscow, the rematch is more balanced as a more controlled and focused Adonis exchanges equal blows with Viktor. Viktor is used to winning by knockout as his bouts have never lasted past four rounds; Adonis uses this to his advantage and willingly endures a heavy beating from Viktor, even after his ribs are broken. In the tenth round, Adonis unleashes sequences of effective blows on a now exhausted Viktor, leading to him knocking Viktor down twice. Ludmilla departs after the second knockdown, deeply upsetting Viktor, who loses the will to fight, and Ivan sees the truth of his son's earlier words. An exhausted Viktor is cornered and receives multiple strikes without defending himself, but is unwilling to go down. Finally realizing that his son's safety means more to him than revenge or acceptance from Russia's elite, Ivan throws in the towel, forfeiting the match to protect his son. He assures the distraught Viktor it is okay that he lost, and embraces him. As Bianca enters the ring to celebrate with Adonis, Little Duke, and Creed's other trainers, Rocky excuses himself and takes a seat to watch them from outside the ring.
Following the match, Viktor and Ivan later train together back in Ukraine. Rocky travels to Vancouver to make peace with his own estranged son, Robert Jr., and meets his grandson Logan for the first time. Adonis and Bianca visit Apollo's grave, where Adonis makes peace with his deceased father and the burden of carrying on his legacy, as he and Bianca introduce Amara, who now has a new set of hearing aids.

Creed III

In 2002, Adonis "Donnie" Creed sneaks out with Golden Gloves champion "Diamond" Dame Anderson, to watch him compete in an underground boxing match in Los Angeles. After Dame's victory, he tells Donnie about his aspirations to turn professional and become a world champion. During a detour at a liquor store, Donnie impulsively attacks a man named Leon, and Dame is arrested while Donnie escapes, running away from the scene. After Dame was arrested, Donnie never contacted Dame again.
In 2024, six years after defeating Viktor Drago and three years after defeating Ricky Conlan in South Africa to avenge his only career defeat, Donnie has retired from boxing to focus on his wife Bianca and their six-year-old daughter Amara, whose hearing impairment has since led the family to become fluent in American Sign Language. Donnie runs the Delphi Boxing Academy with Tony "Little Duke" Evers Jr. and is promoting his protégé, world champion Felix "El Guerrero" Chavez, in a match against Drago. While the two watch the declining health of Donnie's adoptive mother Mary-Anne, Amara aspires to become a boxer like Donnie, which gets her into trouble at school when she attacks a bully.
Released from prison, Dame reconnects with Donnie and shares his desire to resume his boxing career. Donnie reluctantly invites Dame to the gym, and hires him as Chavez's sparring partner, but his presence draws scorn from Chavez and Duke as Dame is overly aggressive and hostile. Dame later visits Donnie's home, where he meets his family and recounts their time together at a group home, a story that Bianca had never heard. Privately, Dame asks for a title shot against Chavez, but Donnie declines. After Drago is attacked by an unknown assailant at a party for Bianca's record label, which casts doubt on his ability to participate in his upcoming boxing match, Donnie nominates Dame as Drago's replacement. Despite it being his first professional bout, Dame manages to win the unified heavyweight championship in a third round knockout by implementing dirty tactics such as a knee and elbow, as well as targeting Chavez's shoulder (which Dame had intentionally damaged during one of their sparring sessions), leaving Chavez in serious condition while being sent to the hospital and Duke furious with Creed.
Following the match, an uneasy Donnie visits Mary-Anne, who shows him years' worth of letters Dame had written to Donnie while in prison, which she kept from him due to her believing that Dame was a bad influence. Donnie is furious for her making Dame think he would abandon him. One letter contains a picture showing Dame with a fellow inmate he recognized as Drago's attacker. Realizing that Dame planned the attack, Donnie confronts him, and Dame admits that he manipulated him into getting the title shot. He strikes Donnie on the beach and cuts his eye, while taunting him. Donnie is unable to open up to Bianca about his and Mary-Anne's complicity in hurting Dame. Dame revels in his newfound fame and publicly calls Donnie a fraud who turned a blind eye on him.
Mary-Anne suffers another stroke and eventually dies. After her funeral, Donnie confesses to Bianca about the night of Dame's arrest, revealing Leon to be the abusive caregiver and true mastermind in their group home before he was adopted. When Donnie attacked Leon at the liquor store, Leon's friends started beating Donnie, which caused Dame to brandish a gun to save Donnie.
Publicly taunted by Dame and encouraged by Bianca, Donnie decides to come out of retirement and challenges Dame for the championship, which he accepts. After training with Duke and a recovered Drago, Donnie faces Dame in the "Battle of Los Angeles" at Dodger Stadium. The fight is a grueling, evenly matched affair. In the final round, Donnie has flashbacks of his disjointing group home and Dame's life in jail, which leads to Donnie being knocked down. He manages to just get back up before the count, then goes on to knock Dame out and regain the championship. Afterward, Donnie reconciles with Dame, with both men admitting it was not the other's fault. Donnie then joins Bianca and Amara in the ring in the empty stadium, where he shadowboxes with Amara.