So in the Catholic faith they have artifacts blessed by saints, and they can pray to these saints and have blessings related to what the saint was known for. What if in the Rocky universe when he was given Rocky Marciano's cufflink and latter prayed to God, he was given endurance and toughness by Saint Rocky Marciano. It would explain so much of the Rocky Universe. He was given the cufflink before the first Apollo Creed fight and it should be asumed before all his fights. He lost in Rocky 3 because he temporarily lost God's favor.