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The Rocky and Creed franchises have been defined by the powerful gallery of opponents they battle. Many of the fights in the franchise are title bouts, and involve some of the greatest boxers in their world. However, the range between the top of the boxing food chain and the bottom is surprisingly large.

Each of the Rocky and Creed franchise opponents brings their own unique style and set of strengths and weaknesses to the ring. Some were strong enough to push Rocky and Appolo to their limits, while others didn't quite measure up to the champs at their best. Here is breakdown of all 11 major opponents that Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed have fought over the course of their connected franchises, ranked from weakest to strongest.

Spider Rico

The weakest opponent in the franchise is Rocky's first opponent from the original Rocky. Played by real-life Argentinian heavyweight Pedro Lovell, Spider...

Warning: Contains Spoilers for Creed III!

The Rocky franchise is known for featuring loads of real boxers, and Creed III continues this trend by featuring four real-life fighters. Although the main villain of Creed III, "Diamond" Damian Anderson, is played by actor Jonathan Majors, who isn't a boxer, the film has its fair share of performers who have real-world experience in the ring. Although they are far from the first real boxers to appear in the franchise, Creed III is a great showcase for some modern-day boxers that are known more for their fighting than acting. Some are returning and some are new, but here is every real-life boxer that makes an appearance in Creed III.

Featuring real-life boxers has been a staple of the Rocky franchise since the very beginning, with Rocky Balboa's first-ever fight being against a fighter named "Spider" Rico who was portrayed by boxer Pedro Lovell.

Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa seems to have lost every single one of his old friends by the events of Creed II, and a deleted scene from the movie confirms it. On the sequel's Blu-ray release which will be available on March 5, multiple deleted scenes reveal more of the story which didn't make it into the final cut. One particular scene shows Rocky at a memorial service for fellow boxer Spider Rico, who first appeared in the original Rocky movie from 1976. Played by real-life boxer Pedro Lovell, Spider can be seen fighting Rocky in the movie's opening minutes. In the unveiled Creed II cut scene, Rocky attends Spider's memorial service along with only a small handful of people, revealing the former boxer had died.

In addition to appearing in the original movie, Lovell reprised the role of Spider Rico in the 2006 sequel Rocky Balboa. This time, his role was much more significant,...