What was the most unrealistic thing that happened in the Rocky movies?
The staggering number of headshots that all of the fighters take - I have seen club fights which were essentially brawls and none of them were ever anything close to a single Rocky film. If they had been, then one fighter or both would have been on the way to the hospital. Or the morgue.share
No fighters changed their strategy when they fought Rocky - Even if Clubber Lang (Mr. T) and Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) thought that they could knock Rocky out, they would have been hesitant to try if they had bothered to watch his fights with Apollo Creed. Nope: Both fighters come into the ring and attempt to slug it out with Rocky, when it’s clear that it’s damn near impossible to knock him out. No. Strategy. Change. Whatsoever.
Rocky surprising naivety about the boxing world - While there are always stories of fighters being tricked out of their earnings, the ugly reality is that the majority know that’s what is happening and they simply want to get as much as they can while they can do so. Rocky is constantly surprised about the darker side of the business which given his age, his former experience as a collector for a loanshark, and his demonstrated experience in the ring, makes no sense whatsoever.
Rocky’s oddly monogamous marriage - Are there boxers who honor their vows? Certainly. Are they in the majority? Nope. The film franchise essentially makes Rocky a saint when that’s not the reality when it comes to men who engage in combat sports. Since making Rocky a hedonist would have actually made several of the films more complex and enjoyable, it’s a wonder that Stallone (who had creative control) didn’t do just that.
Rocky’s amazing mental evolution/devolution/evolution - In Rocky, the character seemed to be in the early stages of pugilistic dementia. By Rocky II that seems to be “clearing up’. By Rocky IV, his diction has improved, his mentally acuity is still sharp despite two or three extremely brutal fights, and he sounds better than he did years earlier. Then (uh oh) by Rocky V, his acuity starts to slip again, although not enough for him to fear getting into a street fight with a rather unstable Tommy Gunn (the late Tommy Morrison). By the time of the Creed films, Rocky is “back” yet again, and able to make complex decisions and rationalizations despite years of savage fights. Yeah….no.