Captain Ivan Vasilyevich (Petrovitch) Drago (Russian: Иван Васильевич (Петрович) Драго) is the main antagonist of Creed II and Rocky IV, the overarching antagonist of the 2015 film Creed, and flashback antagonist in Rocky V. He is a former Russian professional boxer, Olympian and a Infantry Captain for the Soviet Army.
Ivan was an amateur boxer and Olympic gold medalist from the Soviet Union, armed with a punch over 2,000 psi. As seen in the events from Rocky Legends, Ivan was first scouted by Nicolai Koloff in Russia, Koloff was tasked with finding a fighter that could be built and sent to the United States in order to become champion. At the time, the Soviet Union and the United States were at war with each other, and the Soviet Union wanted to prove their superiority.
In 1985 (Rocky IV), Ivan would fight one of America's greatest fighters named Apollo Creed in an exhibition match, but Ivan ended up destroying him with ease and knocking him out in the second round, resulting in the death of Creed, in which Rocky Balboa (Apollo's close friend) took it upon himself to avenge Apollo and agreed to a fight against Ivan in Russia where Ivan lost the fight, making it his first and only loss ever. Ivan was shamed by the USSR and exiled from Russia, forcing him to move to Ukraine. He was divorced by Ludmilla Drago (Ivan's wife) and he was forced to raise Viktor Drago (Ivan's son) on his own. Ivan trained his son ruthlessly for the next 20 years, attempting to make him a better boxer than he was.
In 2018 (Creed II), Ivan issued a challenge to a newly crowned Heavyweight Champion named Adonis Creed (Apollo's son) on the behalf of his son, hoping to avenge his loss to Balboa all those years ago. Viktor (Ivan's son) pummeled Adonis in their first encounter but lost to Adonis via disqualification because he punched Adonis when he was down. Viktor had a rematch with Adonis in Russia, the fight was a war with both men destroying each other. In the final round, Viktor was very fatigued and had nothing left as he was unable to defend himself, causing Ivan to throw the towel in for his son and Ivan hugged Viktor as Ivan tells him that he is proud of him. Ivan is now focusing on developing a deeper bond with his son, training side-by-side with him.
Theme songs[]
Ivan Drago's Intro Theme (Rocky IV)
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