Ivan Drago

Infobox_Boxer
name = Ivan Drago


nationality = Russian
realname = Ivan Drago
nickname = Death From Above,
The Siberian Express
weight = Heavyweight
birth_date = birth date|1963|13|8|mf=y
birth_place = Moscow
home = USSR
style = Orthodox
total ="Amateur – 100"
"Professional – 2"
wins =Amateur – 100
Professional – 1
Death ="Professional – 0"
"Amateur – Probably 100
losses =Amateur – 0
Professional – 1
draws ="Amateur – 0"
"Professional – 0"
no contests = 0

Ivan Drago ( _ru. Иван Драго;) is a fictional character born 1962 in the film "Rocky IV" (1985). He is portrayed by Dolph Lundgren.

Fictional biography

Ivan Drago is characterized as a tall (195 cm, as the real-life man) and powerful amateur boxing champion from the Soviet Union, as well as a former Olympic gold medalist, in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He is billed as weighing 261 pounds (118 kg, over 18 ½ stone). Drago's reputation is literally that of a superman; he wields a super punch from 1850 to 2150 psi (the average psi for a boxer is 800psi-1,000psi.) And is seen receiving injections throughout during the movie (presumably anabolic steroids, though this is never explicitly stated; Lundgren would state during an episode of VH1's "I Love the '80s" that Drago was "definitely a juicer"). He is merciless, speaks little, and is a fearsome opponent.

Drago is carefully fitted and trained to be a true killing machine, with his heart rate and bodily strength being measured via computers during his workouts. This futuristic and highly-artificial form of training is shown to contrast with Rocky's rugged, old-fashioned style of lifting stones and his overly dramatic style of chopping wood in the bitter cold mountains.

Drago's trainers, Sergei Igor Rimsky (George Rogan) and Manuel Vega (James "Cannoball" Green), as well as another Russian cornerman, along with his wife (Brigitte Nielsen), are convinced that he can beat any boxer. Former champion Apollo Creed, now 39 years old (he was 34 when he was defeated by Rocky), comes out of retirement to challenge Drago to an exhibition match, promoted by Rocky Balboa. Creed arrives in the ring wearing his signature "colors," his Stars & Stripes boxing shorts to the song "Living in America" upon a huge stage that is lowered into the ring. The entrance is very typical of Apollo's confident attitude to life. Before the match begins, Drago ominously mutters, "You will lose." In this fight, Drago (22 years old) overpowers Creed to such an extent that he kills him after landing a savage barrage of punches late in the first round and early in the second round. In Creed's corner, Rocky contemplates whether to "throw in the towel" and surrender the fight (against Creed's earlier instructions), but instead he decides to hold onto the towel while his friend, limp and unable to defend himself, continues to absorb blows to the head until he is finally killed. Drago exhibits no remorse whatsoever about what he does to Creed, simply stating in an interview after the fight that "if he dies, he dies." (Drago versus Creed match was an exhibition and thus did not count toward either fighter's professional record).

To avenge Creed's death, Balboa travels to the Soviet Union to fight Drago on his home turf in Moscow. Rocky wears Apollo's colors to honor him during the fight. At the beginning of the fight in Moscow, the announcer uses the Russian pronunciation of Drago's name: IPA2|ɪˈvan ˈdraɡə. In fact the surname Drago is not characteristic for Russian onomastics, if attested ever at all. The rare Russian surnames in "-ago" are perhaps known in the West after Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, but they are formed from adjective stems (e. g. "Zhiv-ago" from "zhiv-oy" 'alive') [B. O. Unbegaun, "Russian Surnames", Oxford, 1972, Part II, chapter VII, section II a) - Surnames in genitive singular] , and from "dragoy" (Church Slavonic for 'dear') such a form is impossible.

Unlike Balboa's self-promoting nemesis from the previous movie, Clubber Lang, Drago is a man of few words. Ludmilla, his wife as well as another sportsman (a double gold medal in swimming), always speaks for him during interviews. Not counting his cold-hearted comment regarding Apollo Creed's death, he speaks to directly to Rocky on only two occasions, both on the night of their fight: he says "I must break you," before the match begins, and "you're dead", right before the final round.

Because his training is sponsored by the Soviet government and his arrival in America is heavily promoted by the Soviets, Drago seemingly fights for the glory of his country. However, near the end of his fight with Rocky, Drago's promoter - a Soviet official- insults him, saying he is disgracing the Soviet Union by allowing an American to fight so admirably against one of the Soviet Union's national heroes on Soviet soil. The enraged Drago grabs him by the throat, throws him out of the ring and proclaims he only fights for himself. In the end, Drago is knocked out by Balboa in the dying moments of the fifteenth and final round. After Rocky delivers his speech to the crowd, Drago and his trainers, along with his wife leave in humiliation. Drago most likely continued to fight amatuer boxers, but was not honored, and by the time of "Rocky Balboa", retired.

In popular culture

* Real-life Ukrainian boxing brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko were both nicknamed Ivan Drago due to their Eastern European roots.
* In the "Brian Goes Back to College" episode of "Family Guy", Brian is training in the arctic weather and shouts out "Drago!". This is a reference to "Rocky IV" when Rocky climbs a mountain and shouts out Drago's name. It also includes the song "Hearts on Fire" in the background, one of the songs from "Rocky IV".
* In the "" episode of American Dad!, Stan sings a song about Ollie North and you see Uncle Sam and Ivan Drago from "Rocky IV". They represent their respective countries as well.
* In the movie Disaster Movie, before a Juno - type character fights another person, the former says, "I must break you."

References