The Real Rocky a/k/a The Bayonne Bleeder
Description
Chuck Wepner is a former heavyweight boxer from Bayonne, New Jersey. As a tough journeyman boxer he went 15 rounds with world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in a 1975 fight. Wepner claimed that he was the inspiration for the movie Rocky.
Wepner acquired the nickname, The Bayonne Bleeder, on June 29, 1970, when as a 31-year-old journeyman heavyweight with a record of 20-5-2, he took on former champ Sonny Liston in Jersey City. At 6-foot-5½, Wepner might have done better in the win-loss column if he had been inclined to fight from the outside, Klitschko-style, but that just wasn't how he operated. He pressed the fight against Liston and paid for it with a broken nose. (One of 11 he suffered in his career), a cracked left cheekbone and 72 stitches (among a total of 338 in Wepner's 15 years in the prize ring).
Wepner acquired the nickname, The Bayonne Bleeder, on June 29, 1970, when as a 31-year-old journeyman heavyweight with a record of 20-5-2, he took on former champ Sonny Liston in Jersey City. At 6-foot-5½, Wepner might have done better in the win-loss column if he had been inclined to fight from the outside, Klitschko-style, but that just wasn't how he operated. He pressed the fight against Liston and paid for it with a broken nose. (One of 11 he suffered in his career), a cracked left cheekbone and 72 stitches (among a total of 338 in Wepner's 15 years in the prize ring).
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