As anyone who grew up during the Cold War knows, the most momentous event of that era, when a generation of Americans faced off against the “Evil Empire” of the Soviet Union, was the shocking and electrifying underdog victory of Rocky Balboa in the boxing match against overwhelming favorite Ivan Drago in Moscow on Christmas Day 1985.

But in a malicious effort to gaslight modern American history, ESPN this week posted on their official Twitter account that the “Fight That Brought Down the Evil Empire” took place on November 27 — NOT Christmas Day.

On This Date: In 1985, Rocky Balboa knocked out Ivan Drago in the 15th round in Rocky IV. pic.twitter.com/Se3zHcCOou — ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2018

One might be willing to forgive the error of some ignorant millennial social media intern spouting off about events they were not alive to witness.

But sadly, this is not the first time that ESPN has made this grave error. In fact, the network pushed the exact same tweet last year as well:

On this date in 1985, Rocky Balboa defeated Ivan Drago, proved everyone could change, and redefined the training montage. pic.twitter.com/FQOhJjUfBN — ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2017

Not one to let a falsehood stand, I called them out on this mendacity last year:

Fact Check: FALSE. The Rocky-Drago fight in the movie was on Christmas Day. https://t.co/lw2XfsYkZl — Patrick Poole (@pspoole) November 27, 2017

And yet they persist in this lie again this year.

One can only conclude that this is yet another instance of the FAKE NEWS left-wing media campaign in their never-ending war against America and Christmas.

Why would ESPN — a sports network — lie about the most important and earth-shaking sporting event since General Maximus Decimus Meridius fought Roman Emperor Commodus man-to-man in a battle to the death in the Colosseum?

ESPN should really know better.

Surely someone at ESPN has seen the footage of the press conference announcing the fight after the tragic death of American boxing legend Apollo Creed?

In this news footage of the event, you can see Rocky Balboa, the world champion, announce that the fight would take place on CHRISTMAS in Moscow (at ~0:47):

Even more remarkable is that ESPN included this very same news clip in their award-winning ESPN Films 30 For 30 documentary program on the consequences of that epic fight (~2:16), showing Rocky announcing the December 25 date:

So what gives, ESPN?

In recent years the network has rightly come under fire for the ongoing left-wing political bias of many of their commentators. But could anyone imagine that the moral slippery slope would descend to this?

And who exactly does ESPN think they’re fooling?

Every person alive at that time knows where they were that *CHRISTMAS* night when Rocky uttered his immortal words after a stunning come-from-behind victory that eventually brought down the Soviet Union. These words continue to live in the hearts of everyone who heard them:

I came here tonight, I didn’t know what to expect. I seen a lot of people hate me and I didn’t know what to feel about that, so I guess they didn’t like much nothin’ either. During this fight, I’ve seen a lot of changing, the way yous feel about me, and in the way I felt about you. In here, there were two guys killing each other, but I guess that’s better than 20 million. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!

We all remember the entire Politburo, led by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, rising to their feet in applause.

And none of us will forget when the video feed switched to the closed-circuit camera at Rocky’s home showing his son and his friends (who, as Rocky said, should have been in bed) but also clearly showing their family robot dressed as Santa and the CHRISTMAS tree in the background.

We will not fall for your FAKE NEWS lies, ESPN. We will not capitulate to your gaslighting history. We will go to our graves stating the truth — that the Rocky-Drago fight occurred on Christmas Day, not on some rando date in November.

Which only leaves us asking ESPN: Why do you hate Christmas? And why do you hate America?