Clubber Lang

James "Clubber" Lang
Rocky character
Mr. T as James "Clubber" Lang
First appearance	Rocky III
Portrayed by	Mr. T
Information
Nickname(s)	The Southside Slugger
Gender	Male
Occupation	Professional boxer

Clubber Lang
Statistics
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nationality	American
Born	Chicago, Illinois
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	Unknown
Wins	20+
Wins by KO	20+
Losses	1+K
Draws	0

James "Clubber" Lang is a fictional character and antagonist that appeared as Rocky Balboa's rival in the 1982 film Rocky III. He was played by the popular "bodyguard to the stars" Mr. T, who was 29 years old when the film was launched. The character is very loosely based on a combination of Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes and George Foreman.

Fictional character biography

James Lang was orphaned at an early age, and spent most of his childhood on the streets of Chicago's Southside, as well as time in orphanages and juvenile facilities. Later as an adult, Clubber was sent to prison for five years, for one possible count of a felony and/or assault charge. But during his time being served he discovered boxing as a way to let out his frustrations and talent, which leads to the events of Rocky III. This is also evident in the game, Rocky Legends, where if the player selects Clubber's path, he starts out fighting in the Chicago Prison, in a ring actually inside the prison itself. One novelization of the film called Lang's manager "Donut." He is also extremely rude and lacking in morals.

Plot

During Rocky III's intro, Rocky is shown easily defeating numerous contenders in a montage, during which Clubber is shown annoyed at Rocky apparently coasting through his title defenses. He is shown training himself and brutally thrashing other boxers. At the match, Mickey suffers a heart attack after being shoved by Lang, just prior to the beginning of the fight. Because Rocky is distracted by this, and because he was out of practice after taking on hand-picked competition previously, Lang brutally defeats Rocky in a second round knockout to become Heavyweight Champion of the World. Mickey dies after this, and Rocky is then trained by Apollo Creed, his former opponent from the first two Rocky films, who polishes Rocky's fighting style. In the rematch, Rocky uses increased speed and evasion techniques he learned from Creed to dominate the first round. Lang makes a comeback with harder strikes, but then Rocky sees a weakness in Lang's strategy. He lets Lang throw all the blows he wants and dodges them, exhausting the champion. When Lang runs out of energy, Rocky then knocks him out in the third round to regain the World Heavyweight Championship. He is not seen after his defeat. Clubber Lang's professional boxing record is unknown, but he seems to have made about 16-19 wins in the opening montage, plus an extra victory and defeat following his last fight with Rocky Balboa.^{[citation needed]}

In one version of the script of Rocky Balboa, Clubber was one of the commentators of the Rocky vs. Mason fight. Lang is left-handed, as he fights southpaw and throws mainly left-handed haymakers from the southpaw stance. 

References

Preceded by Apollo Creed

Rocky Balboa's main opponent

Succeeded by Ivan Drago