The Incredible Hulk - Final Round

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Martin Kove, six years before he become an iconic villain in Karate Kid (1984), was a lovable oaf desiring to “make it to the big leagues”, blissfully succumbing to naïveté, unaware (or perhaps just not willing to face the truth until he did get in the ring with a serious talent) that seven years in the gym and serving as a punching bag for others should have been proof enough that he just wasn’t cut out to be another “Rocky success”. I am a fan of boxing movies so I admit that this very familiar plot for “Final Round” still sort of works to a certain extent although the episode is a bit too derivative of Stallone’s breakout success. Kove’s innocence and appeal as the simple-minded boxer who has a knack for getting under the hood of a car with a soft touch and fixing them with relative ease does help get the episode over. Kove’s Rocky (his nickname, even that is derivative) has a heart to be a successful fighter, lacking the skills and finesse needed to master boxing. But the gym owner and coach (played by an especially slimy Al Ruscio) takes advantage of Henry (Kove), manipulating him into working as a courier with heroin disguised as bandages. Fortunate for Henry, he helps a nearly-mugged Banner, who arrives in Wilmington, Delaware (far, far from California, where he was in the previous episode, never explained why he chose the other side of the country as his next stops), a friendly gesture later returned in kind when Ruscio’s Mr. Sariego plans to use a drug that will stir up Henry’s blood pressure when he’s in the ring with a superior boxer during the climactic big fight. Kind of an undistinguished and rather forgettable start to the first season, though. And considering Banner just sort of hangs around as a medic in a gym at Henry’s request to financially help himself a bit, you’d think those involved in the creative process of his story would wish to really develop some reason to be in Wilmington of all places.

Below is my IMDb review from December of 2015:

Good tension at the end and an endearing character played by Martin Kove are highlights of this boxing-themed episode of The Incredible Hulk which has Bixby's David Banner stopping through a city, immediately mugged and assaulted by a couple of hoods who drag him into an alley. But a simple- minded and gentle-hearted boxer-wannabe (Kove) is happens to be jogging past and helps him fight off the hoods. Kove's Henry (he likes being called Rocky) offers him a temporary place to stay until he gets back on his feet, and David follows him to a small time gym. The gym's corrupt owner (Al Ruscio, a television veteran) and his right hand (Paul Henry Itkin) hire Banner as their physician and allow Rocky to train in exchange for his services as a *delivery man* (Ruscio traffics drugs hiding the heroin under the disguise of bandages). When Banner realizes what Ruscio's Sariego is up to he tries to intervene...but Sariego and Itkin's Whit will use their top boxer (Tony Brubaker) as muscle to bind and hide Banner so he cannot interfere with their plan to murder Rocky for his understanding of the heroin deliveries.

Importantly, this episode gives the viewer two appearances of Ferigno in green, breaking through a brick wall, tossing guys in the air to crash hard to the ground (well, across rooms and alleys, even hurling one goon into a car!), and propelling himself through a window (and breaking out of a cage extended high above a boxing match to surprise an audience of unexpected onlookers) to an alley outside the office of Sariego. Ruscio is slick as a manipulative promoter who preys on the vulnerable Rocky who trusts too easily. Offered a boxing match he is not prepared for, being poisoned by Sariego so that when hit enough and exerting too much physical strain he'd croak from a coronary, and too gullible and naive to realize his skills as a boxer are minuscule, Kove's Rocky (timely nickname considering Stallone's popular boxing film) has the deck stacked against him. But Kove has the Incredible Hulk on his side...

Proof that when the villains of the show emerge, so does the Hulk, Banner may not like the beast within but it doesn't hurt when it appears during crucial, dangerous moments in each episode. Tossing old guys around in this episode (a promoter and pro-Rocky supporter offers the Hulk a job and is tossed way into the air, grabbing hold to the extended cage & Rusio's stunt double is thrown across the office and over his desk, crashing to the floor!) had me laughing. Dramatically cheesy, but this will be of interest for those so used to seeing Kove as a heavy. Early role for comedian John Witherspoon, (a riot in the Ice Cube Friday movies) as a pal of Kove's who is a boxer in training. Bixby was always a strong actor who could bring a sense of professionalism to even the zaniest Hulk episodes.The Hulk breaking a door onto Itkin had me in stitches.