On the night of the fight, Clubber taunts the champion in the hallway as they are walking to the ring and starts a fracas between the two camps, shoving Rocky’s manager and trainer Mickey Goldmill so hard that he suffers a heart attack that proves fatal. With Rocky, who did not take his training seriously leading into the fight, now distracted by his trainer’s condition, Clubber knocks out Rocky in two rounds to hand him his first defeat since Apollo Creed defeated him in 1976. He also angers the former champion by refusing to shake his hand before the fight and challenging Creed to hit him.
