Rocky’s muse
Boxer who inspired Stallone gets his moment
Forty-two years after he stepped into the ring against Muhammad Ali as a 40-to-1 underdog, Chuck Wepner’s business card still has a picture of the moment when he knocked down the champ.
For the New Jersey boxer, it gave him brief hope that he could win. For Ali, it led him to start fighting with a vengeance, eventually taking an exhausted Wepner out with 19 seconds left in the 15th and final round.
For Sylvester Stallone, the overmatched underdog’s fight was a moment of needed inspiration while writing the script for “Rocky.”
Stallone became a superstar and Rocky Balboa became an iconic character. Wepner reeled off a few more wins and continued his day job as a liquor salesman, while living a hard-partying lifestyle that led to prison.
Wepner’s life story has now arrived on the big screen with Liev Schreiber playing the Bayonne Bleeder in “Chuck,” which opens on today in New York and Los Angeles before expanding nationwide starting next week.
“Everyone says to me, ‘Oh, Chuck, finally you got your due,”’ the 78-year-old Wepner said from his living room in Bayonne, the working-class town across the harbour from New York where he grew up.
“You know what, I’ve been living large for 42 years. I fought Ali in ‘75, I went 15 rounds, I had him down, and then they made the movie ‘Rocky.’ I was the inspiration. I haven’t been waiting around.”
Wepner and Balboa’s story share similarities – low-level working class fighters getting a shot at the champ. But while Rocky went on to beat the Alilike Apollo Creed in their “Rocky II” rematch, Wepner turned to a life of partying and cocaine. He pleaded guilty to drug charges in 1987 and served two years of a 10-year sentence.
Like Rocky’s fight with Hulk Hogan’s Thunderlips character in “Rocky III,” Wepner was thrown out of the ring by wrestling legend Andre the Giant at Shea Stadium in New York in 1976. Unlike Rocky, Wepner also fought a bear.
Wepner sued Stallone in 2003, arguing that he improperly used his name to promote the “Rocky” films. Stallone responded Wepner benefited by making public appearances as “the real Rocky,” but later settled. A spokeswoman for Stallone said he wasn’t giving interviews ahead of the film.
While Wepner admits he did a bad job auditioning after a night of partying when Stallone tried to give him a part as his sparring partner in “Rocky II,” the last straw was not being considered for a part in the Stallone and Robert De Niro film “Cop Land,” which filmed near Bayonne.
“I sued for $15 million, fuhgeddaboudit, I didn’t get a minute percentage of that,” Wepner said. “Stallone and I are friends now. We had to go to court. That was just business. I love Sylvester, I think he’s great. I think his moves are great.”