Carl Weathers credited as playing...
Apollo
- Apollo: Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about sports as a profession. Sports make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.
- Apollo's Trainer: Hey, champ, you oughta come and look at this boy you're gonna fight on TV. It looks like he means business.
- Apollo: Yeah, yeah. I mean business too.
- [Apollo is looking through a book of Philadelphia boxers]
- Jergens: What exactly are you looking for Apollo?
- Apollo: [pointing at a profile in the book] This is who I'm looking for. The Italian Stallion.
- Jergens: Rocky Balboa? Never heard of him.
- Apollo: Look it's the name man. The I-talian Stallion. The media will eat it up. Now who discovered America? An Italian right? What better way to get it on than with one of its descendants?
- Apollo's Trainer: He's a southpaw. I don't want you messing with southpaws. They do everything backwards
- Apollo: Southpaw nothing. I'll drop him in three. Apollo Creed meets the Italian Stallion. Now that sounds like a damn monster movie.
- Apollo: Come here, Rock. My main man. Rocky, ain't you Italian?
- Rocky: Yeah, I'm Italian.
- TV Commentator: Now what does that mean?
- Apollo: That means, if he can't fight, I'll bet he can cook.
- [everyone laughs]
- Apollo: Without a ranked contender, what this fight needs is a novelty. This is the land of opportunity, right? So, Apollo Creed, on January first, gives a local underdog fighter an opportunity. A snow-white underdog, and I'm gonna put his face on this poster with me. And I'll tell you why. Because I'm sentimental. A lot of other people in this country are just as sentimental and there's nothing they'd like better than to see Apollo Creed give a local Philadelphia boy a shot at the greatest title in the world on this country's biggest birthday. Now that's the way I see it and that's the way it's gonna be.
- Jergens: Apollo, I like it. It's very American.
- Apollo: No, Jergens. It's very smart.