This is not the fault of Rocky, so much as the sad state of American boxing in the heavyweight division. Big men that size and strength, who are smart, get into pro football these days.
Interesting point. The fact is, if you've got that kind of athletic talent, your chances of not ending up brain-damaged and drooling in a wheelchair at age 44 are much better if you go for football, basketball, or any other sport besides boxing. No wonder it was a much bigger sport in the early part of the century, when it was pretty much this or baseball -- and MLB didn't allow blacks.
As for Rocky Balboa, I'm with Jamesa, and anyone else who says it was 2nd best after the original. The original still hits harder than anything else, and it made its points in a more subtle, gentle manner -- but this one harkens back to that in a number of ways, such as this:
--the antagonist. Apollo Creed, at least as portrayed in Rocky, wasn't a bad guy. A bit of a clownish, grandstanding showman of course, but not a bad person. Mason Dixon is an arrogant dude with a bit of an entitlement complex and an ego, but not a bad guy. When you make a movie with a cartoon villain, it limits your ability to explore characters. Clubber Lang is a lot of fun, but he's a cartoon, and unfortunately contains a bit of ugly racial stereotyping. Drago is even worse in that regard, although it's more just red-baiting.
--nods to the first movie. I can't tell you how thrilling it was to see Spider Rico again, but even more so that they made him a real person. A guy like him would probably still be hanging out around Rocky, being an ex-boxer, and that they made him a generous and religious man later in life strikes me as a true characterization as well. It wasn't just a jokey one-off "Hey look at that goofball!" kind of thing. The ending of course has a similar kind of feel as well.
--the acting. Damn it if Stallone gives a decent performance again after years of crapola (CopLand excepted). The rest of the cast s fine as well.
--killing off Adrian. This movie doesn't work with her in it. He doesn't get back in the ring with her still alive, and the movie wouldn't have the same poignancy. Rockys III and IV gave themselves over to cheap emotions too much (Mick dies, Apollo dies), whereas this, it doesn't, because you know how much he felt for Adrian, how she was his rock, really - not the other way around - and how he's been cast adrift in a lot of ways.
--Duke's speech. "So we're gonna have to rely on something else - blunt force trauma."
The computer fight is goofy, for sure, which is the thing that sets it all in motion. And there's an inconsistency or two in Paulie's behavior, coming into the restaurant drunk, and then a minute later saying Rocky's gonna be fine and it'll all be cool and such.
But this one comes closer to the first than any of the others.