Is Creed The Truest Sequel To The Original Rocky?

Since its release in 1976, the academy award winning Rocky has received six sequels (Rocky II-V, Rocky Balboa, and Creed). The original Rocky was a relatively low budget film focused on a down in his luck boxer with an extraordinary chance to prove his worth inside and outside of ring. It was hailed for its underdog story, acting, and its iconic training scenes. The subsequent sequels often opted to forgo many of the ideas and the low budget style found in the original film. Sequels sometimes included cartoonish villains and other elements that would be out of place in the grittier original Rocky. When Creed was released in 2015, it received near universal acclaim for its story and acting (especially by Stallone and Michael B. Jordan in the title role), which focused on a hungry fighter working to prove his worth to the world. Like Rocky, the film was a character study of a box working to confront his issues within and outside of the ring. Is Creed the closest thing in style and tone to the original Rocky?