Michael B Jordan returns as Adonis Creed for the third time – and he’s got a new rival.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Monday, 06 March 2023 at 12:00 am

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Michael B Jordan is back on the big screen for a third instalment in the Creed series, which also marks his debut as a director.

At the beginning of Creed III, we find Adonis “Donnie” Creed living in Los Angeles and retired from boxing, but it won’t come as much of a shock to fans of the franchise that by the time we get to the final act he’s been enticed back into the ring for another bout.

His opponent this time is Damian “Dame” Anderson (played superbly by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star Jonathan Majors) – a former childhood friend and boxing prodigy who has spent several years behind bars due to an incident Adonis himself had played a part in.

It all ends with one of the most brutal fights the franchise has seen yet – read on to find out what happened, with the warning that there are major spoilers ahead for Creed III.

**Spoiler warning for Creed III**

Creed 3 ending explained: does Adonis beat Dame?

When Dame first arrives back in Adonis’s life, the pair are like old friends reunited – and everything seems to be going well. Adonis uses his sway to help get Dame back training and ready to fight and also introduces him to Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and their daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent).

But it doesn’t take long before their reunion turns sour. During his championship fight with current heavyweight champion Felix (another of Adonis’s protégés) Dame uses some dirty tactics which win him no admirers, and following his win, he is seen flaunting his success in a rather unsavoury manner.

What’s more, it becomes clear that rather than being genuinely happy to have been reunited with Adonis in the first place, Dame has simply been using him – targeting the guilt his old friend feels for his arrest. He’d even used an accomplice to injure Viktor Drago so that the path could be cleared for him to fight Felix in the first place.

WB

Naturally, Adonis decides there’s only one thing for it – the pair will have to settle their differences in the ring. And so after the customary training montage, the big fight arrives, labelled by the media as the Battle for Los Angeles.

The fight is an epic one, and although Adonis takes a few beatings he manages to best his opponent with a knock-out blow in the final round – regaining the championship belt and seeming to win back the grudging respect of his friend-turned-nemesis.

But the film doesn’t just end with the fight: once it’s all said and done, Adonis approaches Dame so they can sort out their differences in a rather less brutal way – with a good old-fashioned heart-to-heart.

WB

Adonis expresses his regret for having cut off contact with Dame after he was sent to prison, and eventually, the pair agree to put the past behind them and reconcile – realising that no good will come from continuing to blame each other for what had happened many years ago.

The film ends with Adonis standing in the ring with his daughter as he looks out at the empty arena. It appears that he might be bidding farewell to his boxing career for good now, but perhaps he has found a successor in Amara – even Bianca seems to be encouraging the child to give boxing a go now having previously expressed reservations.