[~Creed essentially cleans out his division of serious challengers (the few remaining being either injured or unavailable) and magnanimously decides to fight local journeyman Rocky Balboa for the fan spectacle, as well as the implied symbolism of fighting a man with an Italian background on "this country's biggest birthday." In the film and its sequel, Balboa and Creed find themselves basically evenly matched in the ring, ending up friends by the third movie. Creed had multiple nicknames!~]