Ivan Vasilyevich Drago (, ) is a Soviet-Russian fictional character from the Rocky film series. He first appears in the 1985 film Rocky IV, in which he is the central antagonist and rival of Rocky Balboa and is also responsible for the death of Apollo Creed after brutally defeating him in their match. He also appears in the 2018 film Creed II, in which he is the main antagonist and serves as the trainer to his son Viktor. He is portrayed by Swedish actor and real-life martial artist Dolph Lundgren. A poll of former heavyweight champions and prominent boxing writers ranked Drago as the third-best fighter in the Rocky film series. Character biography Ivan Drago is an Olympic gold medalist and an amateur boxing champion from the Soviet Union, who had an amateur record of 100–0–0 wins (100 KO). He is billed at and . Drago is carefully fitted and trained to be the consummate fighter. His heart rate and punching power are constantly measured via computers during his workouts. Drago is seen receiving intramuscular injections in the movie, implied to be anabolic steroids, though the actual nature of the injected solution is never explicitly stated; instead, Ludmilla, his wife, states as a joke that Drago is like Popeye and eats spinach every day. Ivan Drago was forced to leave Russia and move to Ukraine to look after his son Viktor Drago following his loss to Rocky. Drago was married to another athlete, Ludmilla Vobet (Brigitte Nielsen), who is mentioned to be a double gold medalist in swimming. She is much more articulate than Drago, who seldom talks, and always speaks on his behalf at press conferences and interviews. In Creed II, it is revealed that Drago and Ludmilla had divorced as a result of his loss to Rocky Balboa and he is now raising their son - himself a professional boxer - alone. Rocky IV Drago's trainers, Sergei Igor Rimsky (George Rogan) and Manuel Vega (James "Cannonball" Green), along with his wife Ludmilla (née Vobet) (Brigitte Nielsen), are convinced that he can defeat any boxer. Drago enters professional heavyweight boxing in the beginning of the movie. Former champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), now 43 years old, comes out of retirement to challenge Drago to an exhibition match, assisted by Creed's former rival Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Creed arrives to the ring wearing his signature Stars & Stripes boxing garb