Inspired by Rocky Balboa, Shorty Torres releases poster for the upcoming BRAVE CF 55 bout in Russi

In 1985, Rocky Balboa traveled across the world to land in Russia in order to take on the biggest challenge of his career on Christmas Day. Across the ring, Ivan Drago was the Soviet boxer who had killed his former opponent and friend Apollo Creed during an exhibition match months prior. After a 15-round war, Rocky knocks out Drago within seconds on the clock and delivers an inspiring speech about change to a previously hostile crowd who’s now in the middle of a standing ovation… and then, roll credits.

The plot of Rocky IV, the fourth installment in the successful Sylvester Stallone movie’s franchise, took millions to theaters in the 80’s and touched the hearts of many others since then, including the young Jose “Shorty” Torres. So much so that, when he had the chance, Torres didn’t think twice about reenacting what is one of his favorite movies. 

The similarities are there in fact, except, of course, for the whole revenge part of it. Shorty is about to leave his hometown of Chicago, roughly 800 miles away from Rocky’s Philadelphia, and go all the way to Russia to take on the biggest challenge of his career, one that can have huge implications in his future.

Torres, who even got himself a Rocky-inspired poster for the bout, will face Ali “Puncherking” Bagautinov in the main event of the evening of BRAVE CF 55, on November 6, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The winner of this much-anticipated Flyweight bout will move to the prestigious BRAVE CF Flyweight World Title against Velimurad Alkhasov.

But in order to see if Torres is Rocky or Apollo in this story, we’ll have to wait a few weeks more.

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Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a passion for Combat Sports and also a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s also a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.