side of fries

Can someone please explain this Rocky comparison?  I haven’t seen the movie in a really long time but I always thought Rocky had a whole lot working against him at the start but by virtue of his hard work and persistence, he won people over.  I’m thinking she’s more like Drago: a political machine built and honed over many years, sacrificing and pushing herself to the limit only to have people in her own backyard start chanting, O-ba-ma towards the end of the match.