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Apollo marries Adrian in Creed

Sammy SportfaceIn the new movie Creed, Apollo Creed marries Adrian and they have a baby named Creed. Rocky Balboa gets jealous because he was married to Adrian when he had those two fights with Apollo in Rocky I and II.

From Balboa's perspective he and Adrian had a good life together. Sure, the marriage wasn't perfect but none of them are.

But Apollo, whom Rocky thought he become good friends with, stole her away. Friends turn on each other from time to time.

Apollo seduced Adrian after Clubber Lang almost seduced her in Rocky III at a press conference on the steps of a Philadelphia government building in front of which was a statue of Rocky.

At that crowded event, Clubber invited Adrian to his place where she could get to know a real man, implying Balboa was not a real man. Lang, also known as Mr. T., claimed Balboa was afraid to take on Clubber in a title fight because Lang had a malicious Mohawk and was, according to Balboa's trainer Mickey, a wrecking machine. Mickey died in that movie but reappears in the movie as Creed's trainer.

Adrian never went to Clubber's house - she feared his physique - but she always felt Apollo was handsome and neatly dressed. She especially like that he was articulate, a much smoother verbalizer of his thoughts than her unsophisticated husband who said "Yo" all the time.

She had been thinking lately if he said "Yo Adrian" to her one more time, that she would punch him in the face. There it was again: boxing. Always boxing.

Her life was always about the brutal sport since she met him at the bird and turtle store many years earlier when life was simpler. Like so many people, she longed for less complexity.

When Apollo helped train Balboa to fight Clubber in Rocky III, she saw how caring a person he was. He sprinted on the beach with her husband to get him ready to beat the Mohawk Wrecking Machine.

That showed he was a man of kindness and concern for someone other than himself.

Her attraction to Apollo intensified.

She also developed an attraction for Tommy Gunn, who fought Balboa in the streets of Philadelphia. But Gunn, she decided, was too young for her.

While yearning for less complexity, paradoxically she sought more of it.

She didn't want to work in the store anymore where Rocky bought his turtles, Cuff and Link. She wanted more from her life, and felt unfulfilled being married to a guy who kept making movies about himself that ended up with him, in Rocky XVIVL, fighting a Russian and making a "jump the shark" political statement after he won that fight in his red, white and blue American flag boxing trunks.

Adrian got tired of her husband going back to the gym and working out for his next fight because he felt that's all he knew how to do. The Rambo movies weren't generating enough income or fame for her husband so he would always go back to his core competency of making another Rocky movie.

Rocky X, Rocky XI, Rocky LMX.

All this added up to a marriage gone stale. Many do.

The American dream had once again been shredded.

This is why she married Apollo. And because they were married, they had a baby named Creed. Married people create children.

Creed is a movie about a woman getting tired of her husband. It's about a man moving in on another man's wife. It's about a man losing the only woman he ever loved but having to come to terms with the fact that he loved himself and making Rocky movies more.

This is about a man knowing deep down in his heart he was afraid of Clubber Lang and never wanted to fight him. But he knew he had to or Rocky III would not have had a fight. All his movies have to have a fight or they aren't Rocky movies.

This is a movie about the young kid, Creed, who grows up in Philadelphia and drops out of high school. He starts to read books and writes a script for a movie called Creed about an unknown boxer in Philadephia getting a chance to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed. No one in Hollywood thinks the movie will work.

Creed, son of Apollo who himself shockingly becomes a boxer, continues to knock on doors and believes this story about him being born the son of Apollo Creed and Adrian will be a mega-hit. Finally one movie producer agrees to make the movie but wants someone else to play the part of Creed because of Creed's lack of acting experience.

Creed insists that he be the star of the movie or there will be no movie. The producer agrees yet doubts the project will be a box office hit.

Creed then starts training on how to box. He hooks up with a trainer named Mickey at a nasty gym in the Philadelphia slums. He is only half committed to this way of life but is making enough money to get by. In the movie's opening scene, he fights a journeyman named Spider Rico and beats him by the length of a boxing glove.

Feeling lonely, Creed then goes to a small turtle and bird store because he's attracted to the woman who stands at the cash register with her unattractive glasses on. He convinces her to go out with him and tells her, after seducing her up to his junk pile apartment, that he wants to kiss her.

"I just want to kiss you," he says. "You don't have to kiss me. But I want to kiss you."

Though scared, she falls prey to the moment and human instincts. They embrace, smooch, and fall to the ground near the front door. One wonders, but it can be imagined, what happens after that.

Creed tells her he would rather fight Tommy Gunn than Apollo Creed because Creed, who is Creed's dad, has quicker hands.

"If they want me to fight the fight, I'll fight the fight but it has to be with Tommy Gunn in the streets," Creed says. "His hands are slower than Apollo's. I can't stand it when Apollo pops me in the face before I see his fist coming at me."

Creed changes his name to Rocky Balboa.

He makes a movie called Rocky. The star of the movie is Rocky Balboa.

Apollo takes her glasses off. He thinks she looks much prettier with her glasses off.

- Sammy Sportface

Sammy Sportface is possibly America's best sports blogger. Sometimes relevant and insightful. Often funny and satirical. Only mildly interested in the truth. He's written an ebook, Wipe That Smile Off Sammy Sportface, blogs at Sammysportface.com, can be found on Twitter and is accessible via email at sammysportface@gmail.com. His pieces appear frequently on the sports website, Ngscsports.com.

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