Apollo remained the champion, that's how Rocky ended.
As far as Ms. Powers "knowing how to live on a shoestring":
When NWBO is eating leather shoestrings to survive, it is also cannibalizing its own tissues to survive, in this case by dilution. Muscle and fat are consumed and eventually we lethargy which is where we are now, with little being done.
Eventually, the body starves. We by the way are the part of the NWBO body that is getting cannibalize since Cognate does not get diluted.