Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Creed III.
The Rocky franchise is known for its fights, and the newest entry, Creed III, is no exception. Michael B. Jordan is in the director’s chair for this outing, while reprising his role as Adonis “Donnie” Creed. Returning as Bianca is Tessa Thompson, while their on-screen daughter Amara is played by Mila Davis-Kent.
Joining the franchise is Jonathan Majors as Damian “Dame” Anderson who is a childhood friend of Donnie’s. The pair soon come to blows as Dame desires the title of Heavyweight Champion that he thinks he is owed. So, you might be wondering why the pair end up fighting, and more importantly who wins. Let’s take a look at Creed III and tell you all you need to know about the film’s ending.
What happens at the end of Creed III?
Donnie and Dame grew up in the same group home, run by a man named Leon who beat them. After Donnie had gone to live with Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), he ran into Leon while Dame was waiting for him in the car. Donnie hit him, and Dame got out of his car, pulling out a gun. When the police came, they arrested Dame, while Donnie ran off. Because of his priors, Dame was taken to prison, where he stayed for 18 years. When they were children, Donnie wasn’t the boxer, Dame was. He was a great boxer too, breaking records in the local competition.
Coming to Donnie after his release, Dame begged him to set him up with a shot at the Heavyweight Champion title. He got his chance as Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) was injured by an assailant and Donnie needed Dame to fill in for the fight. But, Dame went too far and nearly killed the other fighter, Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez Jr.). It was revealed that he even set up Drago’s injury, setting it up so that he could get a shot at the fight.
Donnie sees his old friend’s recklessness as his own responsibility, so he comes out of retirement to fight him. After one stellar training montage showing how both men trained for their fight, we finally get to see Anderson vs. Creed. The final fight is not filmed as a normal Rocky fight, as at one point they are the only two people onscreen with nobody in the audience, symbolizing how they only saw each other.
Throughout the entire fight, the two were going toe-to-toe and fairly evenly matched even though Dame fought dirty. Just when it looks like he might lose in the twelfth round, Donnie finds an opening and he manages to knock Dame out. Creed wins the match in the twelfth round by knockout. But, the film does not end there, as he visits his friend in his locker room, where Dame absolves Donnie of his guilt from their encounter with Leon. The 18 years he spent in prison had been weighing on Donnie for the entire movie, so Dame finally forgiving him was definitely a weight off of his back.
Earlier on in the film, we find out that Donnie’s daughter Amara is secretly watching her father’s matches online, and is interested in fighting. She even has a little encounter at school after one of her fellow students rips up her artwork. He trains her a bit in the gym, but the movie ends with Donnie and Amara in the ring. The pair leave the ring, and Donnie looks back, giving us the idea that he might be done with boxing for good after having retired at the start of the movie.
There’s no secret ending with Rocky, as he’s not in the film, and there aren’t any scenes after the credits either. It’s a fitting end for the film, which was all about family and the past. There have only been a couple of movies in the Rocky franchise that doesn’t end with the main fighter winning the fight, even the first film in the series did not end in a win.
With how ruthless Dame looked in the trailers, and how powerful he proved to be in the movie, you wouldn’t be the only one to have thought that he might have been the one to beat Creed. But, Creed III does end how you might expect it to, with Creed on top. You can catch Creed III in theaters from March 3, 2023.