A Boxing Movie That could use some Good Boxing

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2019)

First off, I have always loved stallones movies ,not for the boxing scenes but more for the story and how it makes you feel..Stallone nailed it with his 1st Rocky and each sequel still has something of that original heart within each tale, even this one..The scenes with rocky and drago were powerful and I wished they were longer..Scenes with rocky and Adonis were also full of feeling and Micheal B deserves praise for the pain and emotion he brought into his character..I know people ragged alot on him for being an empty ,cry baby of a character, but i disagree, he conveyed the pain of loss very well on screen...What is missing in this movie is Good boxing..The fight scenes and training are amatureish with poor form, poor defense and both guys are swinging haymakers with wayy too much followthru ,More a hollywood thing to make the punches look more dramatic ,leaving their arms dangling after wild hooks and their defensive hands down at their chest or waist..no wonder they are getting clocked over and over..Adonis leaving his ribs exposed when he Knows that the russan is going to go there..And Drago literally running across the ring swinging wild and telegraphing everything he throws...defense and footwork seriously lacking from both guys..neither coming across as skilled fighters at the top of their field,but more like guys who had just started boxing with 6 months experience...Rocky movies have never been where you would go to see realistic fight scenes, ever and this is no different..At least in the 1st creed movie, he was boxing with some genuine and real fighters,and micheal b's skills looked cleaner in the 1st movie than in this..that was likely because he was training with real fighters and that elevates ur level when you do..The drago guy was a brute, but not a skilled brute and did not carry himself like someone who was a boxer in real life ....You could go to most any boxing gym and see guys there that would put the guys in this movie to shame..Overall I liked it, boxing realism aside..stallone brings real heartfelt gravitas to his role and uplifts every scene he is in..the Drago storyline Should have been equally developed, as Dolf has a similiar gravitas about him and it would have made for quite the story but instead was never developed...Micheal b, does not really sell me in his role, I honestly liked him better in the 1st creed and certainly his boxing was better..in this movie, his boxing was just off, and not impressive...anyway, its a Rocky movie, and if you like his movies , you know what to expect and will probably like this...I did... it just wasnt one of his best.