Build a movie plot around this: Who challenged Drago to an exhibition bout? Apollo Creed.
Answer:
Ivan Drago, a Russian Soviet boxer, arrives in the United States with his wife, Ludmilla, and a team of trainers from the USSR and Cuba. His manager, Nicolai Koloff, takes every opportunity to promote Drago's athleticism as a hallmark of Soviet superiority. Motivated by patriotism and an innate desire to prove himself, Apollo Creed challenges Drago to an exhibition bout. Rocky has reservations, but agrees to train Apollo despite his misgivings about the match. He asks Apollo whether the fight is against the Soviet, or "you against you?"During a press conference regarding the match, hostility sparks between Apollo and Drago's respective camps. 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 have no effect on Drago. It soon turns serious though, as Drago starts to retaliate with devastating effect. By the end of the first round, Rocky and Apollo's trainer, Duke, plead with him to give up, but Apollo refuses to do so, and tells Rocky not to stop the match. Drago continues to pummel him in the second round, and despite Duke begging Rocky to throw in the towel, he reluctantly honors Apollo's wish. Eventually, Drago lands one final punch that knocks Apollo to the ground, killing him. In the immediate aftermath, Drago displays no sense of remorse commenting to the assembled media: "If he dies, he dies."Enraged by Drago's cold indifference and feeling a deep sense of guilt, Rocky decides to avenge Apollo's death by fighting Drago himself. Drago's camp agrees to the fight but the conditions are that it must be in the Soviet Union on Christmas Day in an unsanctioned 15-round bout to protect Drago from the threats of violence he has been receiving in America. Rocky travels to the USSR without Adrian, setting up his training base in Krasnogourbinsk with only Duke and brother-in-law Paulie to accompany...