I kind of thought I was a little of a Rocky movie expert. The end of Rocky 3, Apollo says to Rocky, "remember, you fight great, but I'm a great fighter". I still don't know what that means.

It looks like a double edged compliment.
Somewhere along the lines of;
"You're good. But, I'm better."

Was it because Apollo was heavy weight champ for a while?

Something a boxer would say.

Yes, most likely because Apollo was a
more experienced fighter.


Have you ever wanted to compliment someone,
And started the compliment with,
"Don't let this go to your head, but... "


It's sort of like that.
Apollo was letting Rocky know,
not to let it go to his head.

I can see that.

If you set aside the ego of Apollo Creed and treat the statement as a general statement;
It has to do with the professionalism in the art of fighting, which makes Creed's proclaimation false. Rocky did fight great but Creed also fought great. Neither were great fighters because 'great fighter' implies the ability to fight great no matter the discipline.
A truly great fighter would have skill fighting in multiple disciplines, from boxing to MMA to Wrestling. Since neither Rocky nor Apollo were muti-disciplined fighters, neither would be considered to be great fighters.

Tom. You are no fun.

I'm thinking that Rocky had the potential to be a great boxer, but he didn't get there yet. Rocky 3 and 4.

I kinda liked Rocky five

Yo Adrian, I did it!

I wonder how many rounds it would've taken Creed to KO Clubber Lang.

I think every boxer wants to be the greatest. Do you really want to see Rocky fighting in his 70's?

Maybe he messed up his line and they kept it... like that one astronaut.

Should have been ...one small step for A man ...as "man" and "mankind" are synonymous.

I actually read this in my head n it came out sounding like Stallone’s voice in the movie

He meant it in a way as to say:"You are good, but I am better and always was... and I am going to prove it to you now..!" - Which he did, Apollo won that private match (Going back to Rocky I where it was decided on a technical basis that Apollo won, but everybody thought that Rocky should have won this match) The private match was a favor to Apollo that Rocky "owed" him, like settling the score once and for all to prove to himself that he (Apollo) indeed was the better fighter (He won 2 out of 3 with that).

I'm a Rocky fan, as such, I strongly recommend you see the new "Creed" movies where Rocky trains Apollo's son.

Stallone is classy as always, Michael B Jordan is an up and comer.

I've always maintained that I would like to walk down the aisle with someone playing the Rocky Theme song on an organ.

#truestory

just adding my 2 cents
but I think its more of a comment about their fighting styles. rocky just fights to win, apallo liked to put on a show in the ring..