Ivan said that his life was ruined because of him losing to Rocky in the Soviet Union
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, shouldn't he have been able to get some respect back, a fresh start or a clean slate?
shareProbably not.
The stigma of having killed someone in the ring, especially in a high-profile event, would have followed him around forever.
It was also clearly shown that Drago was “manufactured” by the Soviet government machine (the training scenes with the drugs, hi-tech equipment, etc.). Once the Soviet Union collapsed, it is highly likely that all of that dried up, and Drago would be forced to train in other methods without access to the steroids and goodness-knows what other stuff was being pumped into his body. And, even if he found other sources, if he tried to enter the international boxing community, he would have been subject to random drug screenings and other testing that he probably would have failed.
Unfortunately, once the Soviet Union collapsed, Drago would have been another victim of their system and just faded into obscurity.
I was reading the MovieChat board for Creed II, and one point that was emphasized was that even had Rocky thrown the towel it wouldn't have made any difference, because the referee had already tried to step in to stop the fight and Drago threw him across the ring and kept punching Apollo. In reality, Drago would have been arrested, because as soon as the referee tried to stop the fight, the boxing match was over, at which point Drago was committing assault and battery, which is a criminal act. And since that criminal act resulted in Apollo's death, some form of manslaughter or murder charge would apply too.
shareThe only reason I would disagree with that (and this is all fiction, so whatever “head canon” you want to come up with is perfectly valid) is you have to consider the state of international politics at the time the events occurred.
Relations between the US and USSR were EXTREMELY chilly at this point, with the specter of war a very real possibility. The arrest and conviction of a Russian military officer (remember, Drago was shown to be a member of their military) in the US under the banner of international, friendly competition would NOT have been well received by the Kremlin and could have had dire repercussions in American and Soviet relations.
One could imagine the Russian government bristling at such a legal thin line: the death was tragic, but it DID occur in the heat of battle. Trying to make the distinction that it was manslaughter just because Drago was out of control and didn’t listen to the ref would have been seen by the Russians as US legal trickery and a way to embarrass the Russians and to take one of their “superior human athletes” out of circulation because he was a threat to American athletics.
I think the way it was depicted in the film would have been accurate at the time. The US was not going to start an international incident because of a tragic death in a somewhat brutal sport... instead, they would have insisted that Drago immediately leave the US and would ban him from any further competitions in the US. We also would have applied pressure to make sure Drago was banned from competitions in allied nations.
Again... this is my own opinion of what would have happened if such an event had occurred in actuality, given the state of the world and relations between the US and USSR at the time. It’s even part of the underlying theme of this movie in the first place, and the reason for Rocky’s “if I can change, anyone can change” speech at the end of the film.