– Spider Rico Spider Rico (played by Pedro Lovell) was a Puerto Rican boxer that, as a Philadelphia-area club fighter in the film Rocky, fought Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) at the time, which would set the timeline at around 1976. Spider is the first opponent of Rocky's we see in the series. Spider made one attempt in pro boxing against unknown fighter Ken Thorton, Spider was able to pull off a majority decision win before his retirement. He is presented as a strong christian character in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, where he eats free at Rocky's restaurant "Adrian's", which he also works at as a dish washer to not be a free-loader. Rocky befriends and keeps him around out of the goodness of his heart.