Film and Book Reviews

Fact or Exaggeration: How Real Was the Boxing in Creed 2?

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The Rocky series is arguably one of the most famous movie series of all time, telling gripping stories of boxing and professing life lessons as it does so.

The latest installment in the Rocky universe, Creed 2, did just that, pulling in both boxing and non-boxing fans with its captivating storytelling.

The movie picks up on Adonis “Hollywood” Creed, 2 years after the end of the first installment in the Creed series. The movie follows him across multiple bouts with multiple different people, including former pound for pound king Andre Ward, but focuses primarily on the rivalry between Creed and the son of his father’s killer, Ivan Drago.

The first Creed did a phenomenal job of showcasing realistic fighting, though it was not flawless. There were moments where it was rehearsed, looking more like pad work that a real fight, as well as moments where the jab was completely abandoned, resulting in both fighters throwing haymakers at reckless abandon.

Creed 2 studied this however, and they improved it.

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The biggest improvement made in the sequel to Creed was that they recognized the power of a short punch. In the first Creed, nearly every powerful shot was a wide hook, a drawn out uppercut, or a straight whose momentum nearly threw the fighter off his feet.

In Creed 2, they acknowledged that not every knockout needed to be thrown from Brooklyn, seeing the hooks and uppercuts tighter. A couple of the knockdowns were scored due more to the quickness and placement of the punch rather than the raw stopping power.

The other small difference that just looks better to the audience is the choreography itself. As mentioned beforehand, Michael B. Jordan would sometimes move to avoid punches prior to his opponent even moving.

The way they fixed this was that, one, they simplified the combinations required to be avoided. In the first fight of the movie, his matchup with Danny Wheeler, instead of slipping through a five punch combination and firing off one punch, the fighters traded shorter, two to three punches combinations more, which looked far more realistic.

This all being said, there is no knock on either installment in the Creed series, as both showcased utterly captivating fight scenes very rarely scene in Hollywood.

Do you think we missed something or disagree? Let us know in the comments!

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