'The Last American Heavyweight Floored By Muhammad Ali'

[BoxBuzz]

Philo Gabrielle offered a rather definitive summary...and some info the fair minded may want to know about this matchup.


Philo Gabrielle combines his opinion with sources he notes, in the following contribution.


"The Bayonne, New Jersey native was certainly no Joe Frazier or George Foreman, but he wasn't as embarrassingly bad an opponent as many champions had chosen to fight. (The immortal Joe Louis had fought so many dubious challengers that they came to be known collectively as his "bum of the month club.") Wepner, with a record of 30-9-2, was ranked 9th in the world after all, though some observers opined that all that really indicated was that the heavyweight division was quite thin after you got past the top handful of contenders.

For most of the fight, things went pretty much as expected. Ali was in mediocre shape, and didn't push himself. He comfortably won most rounds, though he didn't look as flashy or impressive as he could on a good night. Wepner oafishly plodded after Ali, throwing punches but unable to land anything of consequence, except for his constant rabbit punches (illegal punches to the back of the head).

Then in the 9th round, came the stunner. The round was looking like the preceding eight-dull, with the clear edge to Ali-when Wepner strode forward and momentarily stepped on Ali's foot [/b]or got his foot tangled with Ali's. As Ali stepped back off balance, Wepner threw a lunging right to the body, which was half punch and half push.


(Il Duce...this is for you!......) The champion went down!

Really if referee Tony Perez had seen clearly what had happened, he probably would have ruled it a slip instead of a knockdown. It was definitely the most dubious of the four knockdowns Ali suffered in his career.

Ali didn't protest it however. He immediately got up, clearly unhurt, and resumed what he had been doing, winning the remainder of the round.

As Ali continued to dominate the fight in the subsequent rounds, really the only remaining suspense was whether Wepner could survive to lose by decision instead of by a knockout.

He almost did, but not quite. Ali battered the exhausted Wepner around the ring in the 15th and final round. A flurry put the challenger down. Wepner weakly tried to haul himself up by grabbing onto the ropes, but the referee stepped in and stopped the fight in Ali's favor, with just 19 seconds remaining.

Interestingly, what the Ali-Wepner fight is best remembered for today is not the unlikely knockdown of Ali, but the fight's influence on movie history.

One of the fans watching the fight that night was a small time actor named Sylvester Stallone. Inspired by the underdog Wepner's valiant effort to survive 15 rounds against a legendary champion, Stallone wrote a movie script about an unknown heavyweight challenger's efforts to "go the distance" when he's granted a surprise fight against the champion. Stallone cast himself in the lead in his movie, which was called Rocky and won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1976."

Sources:

Mark Collings, "Chuck Wepner: The True Story of the Real Rocky." Sabotage Times.
Chad Millman, "Yo, Big Chuck." New Jersey Monthly.
"Muhammad Ali vs Chuck Wepner." Boxing Memorabilia.


Now here is some information you can read with confidence and an assurance of it's source.

[BoxBuzz]

Touching? Well a touchstone to the actual events and how it actually manifested..yes.

I like yours better. But wanted to offer up some options to the readers.

Your language work is good....but the information is not all that accurate.

So I felt compelled.

[Giancarlo]

Chuck Wepner

"I had nothing to lose going coming out for Round 15."

"Muhammad was the 'embarrassed one'. I was still hanging around after nearly everybody
said I would be 'lucky' to last thru 6-Rounds. Though I was so far behind on Points, I was
still pressing the action, and making Muhammad work hard for the Knockout win."

"Muhammad was not a nice person, as he had been calling me very bad names during the bout."
> 'White MotherF***er'
> 'White Ass F***'
> 'Scumbag'
> 'Great White Dope'
> 'Whiteboy'
> 'Pale Face Cracker'
> 'This N****r is beating your Slave Ass'

"He kept saying those 'filthy things'. And each time, he would follow up with... "You're going down now Bum."

"I just couldn't understand the 'hate'.

You are one sick b@stard.

[BoxBuzz]

Fact: You are goofy.......OK I can't prove it....so....it's a factoid. However it's a very popular factoid....so it might as well be gospel.

Factoid.....it's entirely possible Ali beat on him just to KO him before the bell rang, because he could. Gave him a chance to quote unquote practice his craft. This factoid can stand up against many of your edumacated guesses that you are offering up. In fact...yeah that's the ticket! It's troo!

Fact: Wepner stepped on M.A's foot. (Refer to photographic evidence earlier submitted for your perusal.) CW was awarded an official knockdown. You know...from that referee that don't pay proper attention. It's all part of this experience known as quote unquote....reality.

[BoxBuzz]

Well now you're just being contrary.

[gilgamesh]

Chuck Wepner

"I had nothing to lose going coming out for Round 15."

"Muhammad was the 'embarrassed one'. I was still hanging around after nearly everybody
said I would be 'lucky' to last thru 6-Rounds. Though I was so far behind on Points, I was
still pressing the action, and making Muhammad work hard for the Knockout win."

"Muhammad was not a nice person, as he had been calling me very bad names during the bout."
> 'White MotherF***er'
> 'White Ass F***'
> 'Scumbag'
> 'Great White Dope'
> 'Whiteboy'
> 'Pale Face Cracker'
> 'This N****r is beating your Slave Ass'

"He kept saying those 'filthy things'. And each time, he would follow up with... "You're going down now Bum."

"I just couldn't understand the 'hate'.

You are one sick b@stard.

Seriously...the guy is completely f*cked in the head.

[BoxBuzz]

Learning to love yourself...........it's the greatest love of all.

I see you have done a good job of it.

If it is true that he was "sick" and "100% racist" Where oh where does this leave you?....if graded on some sort of subjective curve?


You should limit your hateful critiques.......but you "should" do a lot of things that you will not likely do. This is a venomous and spiteful/hateful statement. I suppose it is protected as well. Aren't you lucky. But your bile is disgusting and repulsive to some.
You may be just about as vile as you accuse Ali of being. Coincidence?........I think not.

[scorpio83]

Il Duce, Mike Schutte does not stands at 6'4", but he stands at 5'11 1/2" and here was the second fight with future WBA Heavyweight Champion and fellow South African Gerrie Coetzee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcVRqD154i8