In cinemas this week: It’s a knockout for movie fans as Sylvester Stallone returns in Creed II

AS long as the latest Sylvester Stallone movie has some boxing in it, you’re guaranteed a hit.

Indeed, even when his Rocky series hasn’t quite lived up to the glory and praise of the original movie, Sly somehow pulls himself up off the floor and knocks us out with his next one.

So we’re almost certainly in for another pugilistic treat with the arrival of Creed II, and the veteran star is in no doubts that the boxing side of his acting career has been his favourite.

Asked if he would rather be remembered for his iconic role as Rambo or Rocky, Stallone responded: “It’s a tough one, but Rocky is my first baby, so Rocky.”

Creed II – written by and starring Stallone – is the sequel to Creed from 2015, and it follows boxer Adonis Creed, played once more by Michael B Jordan.

He is out for vengeance and desperate to beat the son of Ivan Drago, a powerful athlete who killed his father in the boxing ring 30-odd years earlier.

Soviet boxer Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren, killed Apollo Creed in a Las Vegas exhibition fight. He got his deadly strength from his secret use of steroids.

That same year, Rocky Balboa – Sly, of course – beat Drago in another bout on Christmas Day in the Soviet Union.

Now he is Creed’s trainer and keen to guide him to success against the son, Viktor Drago.

Ivan, needless to say, would like to get some of his honour back and fix his reputation, via a victory for his son.

It all has, of course, the various ingredients that Stallone’s boxing movies often have, and the elements that draw in American audiences in huge numbers, not to mention viewers elsewhere.

He even has some real top-class boxing names appearing as themselves, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield and famed ring announcer Michael Buffer.

Yep, the guy who yells: “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

Carrying all this, however, takes quite some doing when you are the American hero, and Michael B Jordan showed in the first Creed that he is more than able.

The 31-year-old Californian was a very talented sportsman at school, primarily in basketball, and even in his child model days, he did a lot of his work for the famous Modell’s, America’s sporting goods giant.

He has also starred as a boxer in Law & Order and as quarterback Vince Howard in NBC drama Friday Night Lights, so it’s fair to say sport and especially boxing don’t come difficult to him.

When you have a guy like Sly Stallone coaching you on and off screen, it really should be a piece of cake, too.

The whole history of Stallone is intertwined with the story of Rocky, of course.

It’s now 42 years since the first Rocky film stunned the cinema world. Costing a million dollars to make, it brought in 225 times that.

That one did so well that we’ve had six sequels before Creed II – the first five written by Stallone, who has also directed four of them.

The rags-to-riches American Dream tale is always popular with our trans-Atlantic cousins, but that first Rocky hit the mark with audiences across the globe, and the appeal has never worn off.

Rocky won three Oscars, Best Picture included, and is rated second only to the classic Raging Bull for this type of movie.

Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, Rocky Balboa and Creed have all done well, though long-time fans still admire the first as it was the start of their addiction!

Rocky II, made in 1979, saw our hero retire from the sport after suffering a detached retina in a defeat by the aforementioned Apollo Creed, and marrying his beloved Adrian, who soon reveals she is about to have his baby.

Alas, for a variety of reasons, Rocky finds his hard-earned savings running out and battles back to boxing greatness.

While, of course, putting strain on his new marriage and role as a father.

Rocky III – the one with Eye Of The Tiger for its unforgettable theme music – arrived in 1982.

Goaded into taking on a younger, fitter man, he is beaten and his trainer has a heart attack, having warned Rocky that his wealth has cost him his hunger in the boxing ring.

Rocky pretends in the rematch to be no match for his opponent, letting him tire himself out before seeing him off and regaining his title with a knockout punch.

For underdogs everywhere, or folks who were feeling like they were perhaps just getting a bit over the hill, it was more much-needed inspiration from Rocky.

Say what you want about Sylvester Stallone, but he knows which buttons to press to get those kinds of feelings out of us!

Rocky IV, three years later, would become the highest-grossing sports movie in almost a quarter of a century, and saw Ivan Drago head Stateside.

When Apollo Creed agrees to a fight with him, Rocky doesn’t much fancy the idea, but is willing to coach him to success.

Which is sort of where we came in with the latest one.

Even Sly himself has admitted that Rocky V was a bit of a disappointment compared to all of its predecessors, but Rocky Balboa was a return to form.

Featuring Rocky running a restaurant named after his now-deceased wife, and getting used to semi-retirement, this one was released 30 years after the original Rocky.

It would get a spin-off of its own, of course, in the first Creed.

All of this from a man who was once so poor, he sold his wife’s jewellery for food, and then sold the family dog.

It was after watching a Muhammad Ali bout that he got the idea for that first Rocky. He was laughed at, but persevered. It hasn’t turned out too badly, has it?

“It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward,” he says.

Creed II is in cinemas from Friday November 30.