The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who also portrayed him in all eight Rocky films.

Stallone mostly only found gradual work as an extra or side character in films with a sizeable budget until he achieved his greatest critical and commercial success as an actor, starting in 1976 with his self-created role as the boxer Rocky Balboa, in the first film of the successful Rocky series (1976–2018).

Robert "Rocky" Balboa, Sr., “The Italian Stallion”, is the title character of the Rocky film series.

The first film, Rocky (1976), and its five sequels centered on the boxing career of the eponymous fictional character, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).

When Stallone reprised his role once again in 2015 for Creed, his performance received wide acclaim and he received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with his third Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and several other accolades.

Both a spin-off and sequel in the Rocky film series, Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Johnson Creed, Apollo Creed's son, with Sylvester Stallone reprising the role of Rocky Balboa.

Rocky gets his dream come true when the undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, Apollo Creed, decides that he wants to give an unknown fighter a chance to fight for the title after his intended challenger, Mac Lee Green, broke his hand while training.

Protagonist Rocky Balboa, Creed's rival in Rocky and Rocky II, faces underdog odds (five-to-one in Rocky II) and views Creed with respect, pointedly refusing the prodding of a reporter to trash-talk against Creed (although it is implied that, being poorly educated at that point, he didn't understand the meaning of the word "derogatory"), even after the flamboyant Creed publicly taunted him, by laconically remarking, "He's great."

Unknown to him, the gym's owner and grizzled former boxer, Mickey Goldmill, does not dislike him, but considers Rocky's potential to be better than his effort.

In addition, Goldman was the boxing trainer of Rocky Marciano, on whom Rocky Balboa is based.

Along with his old trainer, Tony "Duke" Evers, Creed offers to train Rocky for a rematch against Lang, taking Rocky to Los Angeles.

Tony "Duke" Evers is a fictional character from the Rocky films, initially portrayed as the manager/trainer to Apollo Creed before eventually becoming the manager to Rocky Balboa.

In 1985, Apollo Creed agrees to have an exhibition match against Soviet World Amateur Champion and Olympic gold medalist-turned-professional fighter Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Las Vegas, with Rocky Balboa and Tony "Duke" Evers in his corner.

He first appeared in the 1985 film Rocky IV, in which he is Rocky Balboa's rival.

While he is loosely based on Chuck Wepner, a one-time boxer who fought Muhammad Ali and lost on a TKO in the 15th round, the inspiration for the name, iconography and fighting style came from boxing legend Rocky Marciano. Some time later, Rocky and his son run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Rocky gives him a valuable possession of Mickey Goldmill's that had been passed on to him by Rocky Marciano. The name, iconography, and fighting style of Rocky Balboa were inspired by the legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano from Brockton, Massachusetts and from the 5 times world champion Roberto 'Manos de Piedra (Hands of Stone)' Duran, from Panama, where the Balboa is the official currency.

Rocky Marciano was the inspiration for the name, iconography and fighting style of the title character Rocky Balboa from Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movie series.

However, in 1981, Rocky is challenged by an intense newcomer named James "Clubber" Lang (Mr. T), who has risen to the top of the rankings.

Lang is a professional boxer fighting out of Chicago, Illinois and a one-time world heavyweight champion, having taken the title from Rocky Balboa only to lose it back to Balboa in his next fight.

Upon returning to the United States (in a Soviet airplane), his press conference is interrupted by promoter George Washington Duke and Union Cane (Michael Williams). One day, Rocky meets a young ruffian boxer from Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison) and begins training him.

A week after Rocky Balboa's victory over Ivan Drago in Moscow, he, his wife Adrian, his brother-in-law Paulie, and his trainer Tony "Duke" Evers, return to the United States, where they are greeted by Rocky's son, Robert.

Three years later, Rocky is visited at Adrian's by Adonis "Donnie" Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan) – Apollo's illegitimate son, who grew up serving time in a juvenile detention center in Los Angeles.

He goes to Philadelphia and convinces his late father's friend Rocky Balboa to train and mentor him.

Rocky confides in Adrian before the fight that, although he figures that he may not win, he wants to at least "go the distance."

The notion of "going the distance" is featured prominently in the 1976 film Rocky in which Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed fight 15 rounds for the World Heavyweight Championship.

When Stallone reprised his role once again in 2015 for Creed, his performance received wide acclaim and he received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with his third Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and several other accolades.

When Stallone reprised his role once again in 2015 for Creed, his performance received wide acclaim and he received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with his third Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and several other accolades.

One day, Rocky meets a young ruffian boxer from Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison) and begins training him.

Stallone arranged a script reading and cast Morrison in the movie Rocky V as Tommy "The Machine" Gunn, a young and talented protege of the retired Rocky Balboa.

Mason Dixon once remarked about Balboa: "that guy's got bricks in his gloves."

The film, which features Stallone as underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, is the sequel to the 1990 film Rocky V, and the sixth installment in the Rocky series that began with the Academy Award-winning Rocky thirty years earlier in 1976.

Balboa's best attribute is without question his near-superhuman ability to absorb a multitude of the hardest hits without falling — an attribute he often employs on purpose to wear down his opponents, sacrificing defensive strategy to land his own punches.

The fictional Rocky Balboa character of the Rocky franchise epitomizes the concept of a boxer with a granite chin.

In 2014, Rocky Balboa was the Inaugural Induction to the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame.

Rocky Balboa, from the Rocky film series, was chosen as the inaugural induction to start the Fictitious Athlete Hall of Fame.

Rocky Balboa was named the 7th greatest movie hero by the American Film Institute on their 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list.

After Donnie's win, the media heavily publicized the story of Apollo's infidelity, which catches the eye of Tommy Holiday (Graham McTavish), who is looking for the final person to fight his trainee, light-heavyweight champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew).

McTavish became the only actor to perform opposite Sylvester Stallone in his roles as Rocky Balboa and John Rambo.

It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated, but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer, working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia.

Rocky's doctor, Presley Jensen, performs computer-simulated examinations, which reveals that Rocky is diagnosed with a condition called Cavum septi pellucidi, which is brain damage caused by extremely heavy blows to the head.

*In the 1990 film, Rocky V, Rocky Balboa visits a doctor before attempting to enter any future boxing matches, because he is broke and destitute.

Some time later, Rocky and his son run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Rocky gives him a valuable possession of Mickey Goldmill's that had been passed on to him by Rocky Marciano.

Visitors to the museum are often seen mimicking Rocky Balboa's (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) famous run up the east entrance stairs, informally nicknamed the Rocky Steps.

The name, iconography, and fighting style of Rocky Balboa were inspired by the legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano from Brockton, Massachusetts and from the 5 times world champion Roberto 'Manos de Piedra (Hands of Stone)' Duran, from Panama, where the Balboa is the official currency.

Durán's first appearance in a movie was in the 1979 film Rocky II as a lightning-fast sparring partner for Rocky Balboa.

Rocky Balboa fights as a southpaw (left-handed).

Boxing: Manny Pacquiao, Marvin Hagler, Hector Camacho, Pernell Whitaker, Joe Calzaghe, Vicente Saldivar, Tiger Flowers, Young Corbett III, Gabriel Elorde, Sergio Martínez, Ivan Calderon, Freddie Miller, Victor Ortiz, Sultan Ibragimov, Naseem Hamed, Lucian Bute, Vasyl Lomachenko, Zab Judah, Ruslan Chagaev, Adonis Stevenson, Oleksandr Usyk, Rocky Balboa (fictional)