how come rocky found it so difficult to beat apollo, and yet russian 'ivan drago' demolished apollo with ease?

Answer 1

If Rocky had beat Apollo in the first movie there would have been no other movies. In the first movie Apollo won but know he had been a war. You think that's strange, in the fifth movie if I remember correctly Rocky beat a fighter from Kansas City which is not hard for that's how the script was written. The strange part is the fighter had to quit fighting because he test positive for HIV. Years later he is tested and he does not have HIV, who can he sue. This man was on his way to being champ. To me that is a better story.

Answer 2

Apollo didn't have time to train for the fight. He was essentially coming off of a 5 year vacation, and jumping into the ring as quickly as possible before "somebody else steps in and whips this chump. ... Where does that leave me?" Also, Apollo entered the fight with the understanding it was an exhibition match...not a ranking or title match. Drago treated it like war. In both fights he took cheap shots on Apollo and Rocky after the bell had rung. Finally, Rocky had the advantage of knowing what he was up against, where Apollo had never seen Drago fight.

Answer 3

I agree with Black Baur's point. I think the movie was trying to show that Apollo didn't really take Drago seriously and subsquently didn't train as hard - that's just my assumption, though. Rocky really trained his butt off for Ivan because he knew what a killer (literally) that Russian was in the ring.
Also, you gotta figure that Apollo was a few years older from his fight with Rocky.

Answer 4

when rocky fought apollo apollo was in his prime and when ivan fought apollo apollo was out of shape and had been retired for a while

Answer 5

I don't think Apollo even trained for it, let alone trained as much as Rocky did, after he died.

Answer 6

apollo was not like a piece of iron.

Answer 7

As his trainer opines, "...anything he hits, he destroys!"

Answer 8

He was a chump....