from AINT IT COOL, they did a fan Q&A with Sylvester Stallone....Sly gives his thoughts on what happened to 3 of his most famous opponents...
9. Dear Mr. Stallone;
As awesome as your movie ROCKY BALBOA was in updating us and giving closure to one of the most loved cinematic characters in history, I was very highly disappointed in not being updated and thus having closure on Rocky's past opponents. You had mentioned in the past talkbacks that we would see Mr. T return as Clubber Lang only to see a 3 second archive clip! Come on Sly, throw us a bone here!!

You must agree that in order to have a successful protagonist you need a successful antogonist,
What happened to Clubber Lang? Did he become a boxing analyst or perhaps a televangelist after finding God?
What happened to Ivan Drago? Especially after the Glagnost & the fall of communism, it would have been interesting to see what happened to him. Did he migrate to the US and hook up with some hot U.S. Gymnast after divorcing his wife? Did he he become disabled due to his heavy steroid use?
Then you have Tommy "Machine" Gunn. Did he become a drug wasted hasbeen? Did he see the error of his ways even though it was too late? Was he convicted or raping a beauty queen in an elevator at a Las Vegas casino?
Surely these former opponents of Rocky didn't fall off the face of the earth after being defeated by the Itallian Stallion. Not only do the fans (especially me) need closure but these awesome characters you created need closure too. I assume they paid for your swimming pool & your indoor bowling alley!

Anyway a quick update on what happened to these now classic characters would be greatly appreciated!
Sincerely with the utmost respect to you & your work!
Tim Ryan
Lisbon, Maine USA
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9. Okay Tim, that one hits me right between the eyes.
In the last ROCKY I had written an elaborate storyline for Mr. T (AKA Clubber Lang,) which was reminiscent of George Foreman, who became a ringside analyst. In the script he was doing blow-by-blow commentary and also talking about his new profession of being an evangelist in the making. I thought it was wonderful because he was describing what it was like to fight Rocky Balboa while Rocky was fighting someone else. Unfortunately we couldn’t meet the actor’s financial requirements because we didn’t have enough money to buy fax paper, so I replaced him with HBO commentator Max Kellerman.
Ivan Drago I always believed went back to Russia where he was scorned and badgered into a position of disgrace and eventually succumbed to alcoholism and unfortunately then suicide.
As for Tommy Gunn, he was exposed as being a project that would never be fully developed as a man and also succumbed to a life of a mediocre fighter barn storming around the country and eventually transforming himself into Tommy ‘Boom Boom’ Gunn, second rate wrestler performing exclusively in the Midwest in third rate venues.
Apollo Creed, after his death had a very successful comeback in DAWN OF THE DEAD. But you’ll be hard pressed to recognize him because of severe decomposition.
And as for Adrian, she’s still working in that great pet shop in the sky waiting for Rocky to return.