Before the fight, Chuck Wepner was chockfull of confidence. You might even say he was cocky. He told his wife, “Tonight, you’ll be sleeping with the heavyweight champion!”
But after getting KO’d by Muhammad Ali in the 15th round, a dejected (and bloody) Chuck Wepner retreated to his hotel room. His wife instantly sat up in bed.
“Okay, bigshot. Do I go to Ali’s room, or does he come to mine?”
Today is the 50th anniversary of Chuck Wepner’s title fight against Muhammad Ali. In some respects, it was a lackluster, insignificant fight. Indeed, compared to Ali’s legendary trilogies with Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, or his epic battles with George Foreman (RIP) and Sonny Liston, the Wepner-Ali fight barely qualifies as a footnote in boxing history.
But there’s a catch: This is the fight that gave the world Rocky Balboa.
Here’s the full fight:
The parallels between Wepner’s life and the “Rocky” screenplay are readily apparent. Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champion in Balboa’s fictional world, was always an obvious facsimile of Ali. Like Wepner, Balboa was a tough, rugged, hard-working white guy.
How tough? Not only was Wepner an ex-Marine, but he saved the lives of three pilots, pulling them from blazing airplanes.
How tough? The dude battled all the top guys of his era: Foreman, Liston, Buster Mathis, Joe Bugner, and Ernie Terrell.
How tough? Well, would YOU step in the ring with Andre the Giant:
Another similarity between Rocky Balboa and Chuck Wepner was the simple fact that neither man actually deserved a title shot. In the “Rocky” screenplay, Balboa was only given the fight to give the champ an easy payday during America’s bicentennial. He wasn’t a top contender or #1 challenger; Rocky was a lowly Philly club fighter.Wepner was better than a club fighter, but he was never a serious challenger for the heavyweight title. He bled too much. He was just too slow and unathletic. But — just like Rocky — he was gifted a world title shot under very weird circumstances.
Nowadays, we all know Don King as the ultimate boxing promoter, but the fight that put him on the map was the Rumble in the Jungle, the battle between Big George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. King landed the fight by outbidding everyone else: He had an African dictator put up the money, figuring that the publicity would boost local tourism.
That was why the “Rumble in the Jungle” took place in Zaire.
After the fight, King wanted to continue promoting Ali's bouts. So once again, he found a deep-pocketed investor and outbid everyone else. It’s been widely speculated that King funded the Ali-Wepner fight with mafia money.
Allegedly, it took King many years to pay off those debts:
In 1989, Teddy Brenner told me that not only did organized crime underwrite the Wepner fight, but King owed them money for years and was nearly killed over the debt in the early 1980s. “King went to a friend of mine,” Brenner told me, “and begged him to cancel a contract put out on his life by the Cleveland mob. There was a hit man coming after King in New York because he hadn’t paid back the debt for the Wepner fight.”
Ali didn’t take the fight too seriously. He wanted an easy payday after his life-and-death war with Foreman, and Wepner wasn’t expected to put up too much of a challenge. And that’s pretty much what happened.
Until one moment in the 9th round, which is still hotly debated in boxing circles: Chuck Wepner scored a knockdown on Muhammad Ali!
And the eye in the sky don’t lie: When you watch the footage, Ali was definitely knocked down. (But in fairness to Ali, he always contended that he tripped because Wepner stepped on his foot and pushed him.)
After landing Ali on his back, Wepner was excited: “Start the car up, Al!” he told his manager. “We’re going to the bank; we’re millionaires!”
His manager pointed at the ring: “You better turn around — your guy’s getting up and he looks pissed off.”
Ali was.
He beat the crap out of Wepner for the next five rounds, slicing his face into ribbons and stopping him in the final round.
Still, Wepner was the last man in history to score a knockdown on Ali.
This was the apex of Ali’s global popularity. He was, arguably, the most famous man on planet Earth. His fights became international events, covered, loved, and followed by people everywhere.
Including, as fate would have it, an unemployed actor named Sylvester Stallone, who watched the fight live and developed one of the most iconic sports heroes in history: Rocky Balboa.
We’ll let Sly tell the story:
Chuck Wepner, a battling, bruising club fighter who had never made the big time, was having his shot. It wasn't at all regarded as a serious battle. But as the fight progressed, this miracle unfolded. He hung in there. People went absolutely crazy. Wepner was knocked out in the 15th and final round, almost lasting the distance. We had witnessed an incredible triumph of the human spirit and we loved it. That night, Rocky Balboa was born.
It only enhanced the Ali legend. In fact, here’s a fun little clip: Muhammad Ali interrupting Sylvester Stallone at the Academy Awards:
“I’m the real Apollo Creed!” yelled Ali. “You stole my script!”
And it all began 50 years ago today.
