Continuity mistake: Rocky's eye was injured at the fight in the beginning of the movie. They show the right eye covered up with the bandage at the hospital, but no one says specifically which eye it was. When Rocky decides to fight Apollo again he goes to see Mick. Mick the trainer tests both eyes. He tests the left and it tests OK, then he says, "Now we try the other lamp." The right eye is the one that has no peripheral vision. Mick slaps him on the right cheek to prove how he would get hurt by Apollo. When he does train him, Mick tells Rocky to switch to fighting right handed. Mick says,"Now, this will confuse Apollo, and it will protect that bad eye." However, in the fight at the end the announcers says that, "Apollo hit that bad left eye, remember from the first fight. It's the same eye that was cut the last time." (00:47:40 - 01:43:15)
Continuity mistake: During the final part of the "gonna fly now" scene, the number of kids around Rocky is inconsistent between shots as of when he jumps over a bench and when he is walking up the steps.
Continuity mistake: When Rocky sees his baby boy, he keeps swapping from head covered / uncovered and messy / brushed hair between shots.
Revealing mistake: In the fight against Apollo, Rocky's last punch of the second round conspicuously misses by a mile, but Apollo nonetheless acts like he has been punched, and there is a punch sound effect as well.
Answer: With all the damage Apollo did to Rocky, Rocky still wasn't knocked out. In the film series, Rocky is depicted as having an almost superhuman ability to absorb punches. Rocky also caused internal bleeding in Apollo. Tony knew that Rocky was far more dangerous than anyone realized.
Greg Dwyer