Plot summary

On New Year's Day in 1976, world heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) has successfully defended his title in a split decision against challenger Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). He and Rocky are taken to the same hospital. Because of the close outcome of the fight the general public believes that Apollo did not necessarily win. Despite their mutual agreement not to seek a rematch, Apollo challenges Rocky again, but Rocky declines and retires from professional boxing.His girlfriend, Adrian (Talia Shire), supports his choice, as do his doctors, who reveal that he will require surgery for a detached retina, a condition that could lead to permanent blindness. In a private moment, Rocky goes to see a recuperating Apollo, and wants a truthful response to his question of whether Apollo gave his all in the fight; Creed confirms that he did. After Rocky is released from the hospital, he enjoys the benefits of his life's changes: Rocky's new fame attracts an agent who sees Rocky as a potential endorsement and sponsorship goldmine, and his sudden wealth encourages him to propose to Adrian. She happily accepts, and they marry in a small ceremony. Soon after, Adrian reveals that she is pregnant.Meanwhile, fueled by hate mail claiming he fixed the fight in order to protect his reign as champ, Apollo becomes obsessed with the idea that a rematch is the only way to prove that Rocky's performance was simply a fluke. Determined to rectify his boxing career's only blemish, Apollo ignores all pleas by his friends and family to forget about the fight, and instead demands his team do whatever necessary to goad Rocky out of retirement.Rocky, at first, seems unaffected by Apollo's smear campaign, but his inexperience with money causes him to run into financial problems. Tony Gazzo (Joe Spinell), a loan shark and Rocky's former employer gets him to invest his fight money of $37K and endorsements into condominiums. He buys a new apartment, a Thunderbird, expensive coats and fancy dresses & watches for Adrian as he starts doing ads and so on. The ads don't go too well as Rocky cant read his lines properly. After several unsuccessful attempts to find employment (he cant get an office job as he is not educated. He only gets offers for manual labor and starts hauling beef for one of Paulie's (Adrian's brother) friends.. Buy even that doesn't last long as the factory has cut backs). Rocky sells his watch and car to Paulie. Rocky visits Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith), his trainer and manager (a former bantamweight fighter from the 1920s and the owner of the local boxing gym), at his gym to talk about the possibility of fighting again. Mickey declines out of concern for Rocky's health (he cant see any jab coming at his face from the right side), but he soon accepts after Apollo publicly insults Rocky. Adrian confronts Rocky about the danger of returning to boxing and reminds him of the risk to his eyesight. Rocky argues that he knows nothing else, so this is the only way he can provide for them. Adrian, furious at Rocky for breaking his promise, refuses to support him.Rocky and Mickey begin training, but Rocky is unfocused due to Adrian's disapproval. Mickey tells Rocky to start training right handed as that would protect his eye and would throw Apollo off-balance in his game. Mickey has Rocky catching chickens to gain some speed and agility into his legs. he ties his left hand to force Rocky to train with his right one. Adrian's brother, Paulie (Burt Young), confronts his sister about not supporting her husband, but she faints during the confrontation and is rushed to the hospital, where she goes into labor. Despite being premature, the baby is healthy, but Adrian falls into a coma. Rocky blames himself for what happened, refusing to leave Adrian's bedside until she wakes up, and will not go to see his new baby until the baby can be together with his mother. When Adrian comes out of her coma, she finds Rocky by her bedside, and the couple are shown their new baby, a boy, which they name Robert "Rocky Jr." (Seargeoh Stallone) Adrian gives her blessing to the rematch, and Rocky quickly gets into shape for the fight. Rocky trains with the whole of Philedelphia. he works outs in the docks, parks, catches the chicken, the railway tracks, markets.. the whole crowd runs behind him.. as he climbs the stairs to the Philly square..On Thanksgiving, the night of the match, Apollo makes a public goal of beating Rocky in no more than two rounds to prove the first match going the distance was a fluke. Rocky (202 pounds), fighting right-handed to protect his eye instead of his natural southpaw, is knocked down twice by Creed (220 pounds) in the first 2 rounds (but he manages to get back up and stays in the fight) and outclassed for much of the fight. Going into the fifteenth and final round, Creed is well ahead on points and only needs to stay away from Balboa to win the fight by decision. However, Creed, not wanting the fight to end like it did the first time, ignores his trainer's (Tony "Duke" Evers (Tony Burton)) pleas to stay back and attempts to beat Rocky by knockout.In the final round, Rocky switches back to his natural stance, and in dramatic fashion, unleashes a series of counter punches on Creed, turning the tide. Both men, exhausted, trade punches until they knock each other down. As both men struggle to regain their feet, Rocky is able to will himself up at the count of 9 while Apollo collapses from exhaustion, giving Rocky the win by knockout, making him the new heavyweight champion. Rocky then gives an impassioned speech to the crowd and holds the belt over his head with a message for his wife, who is watching the fight on TV: "Yo, Adrian, I did it!"