64. Chuck Wepner gets his shot at the title cover art

64. Chuck Wepner gets his shot at the title

64. Chuck Wepner gets his shot at the title

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 After beating Joe Frazier and George Foreman in two of the biggest fights in boxing history, Muhammad Ali was looking for an easy win over somebody. Enter Chuck Wepner... This would be a walk in the park for the champ before he could move on to bigger things. But Chuck had other plans. After knocking Ali down in the 9th round Wepner told his trainer Al Braverman to start the car... "We're going to the bank, " he said. "We're millionaires." To which Braverman told his fighter, "You better turn around. He's getting up and he looks pissed off." For the remainder of the fight, Ali battered the challenger, opening up cuts above both of Wepner's eyes. But Wepner kept coming, and kept coming, and never stopped until 19 seconds left in the 15th round when Ali sent him to the canvas... and even then, Wepner got back up, but the fight was stopped. He had given everything he had and then some and his courageous fight caught the attention of everyone... most notably a young Sylvester Stallone who would use this Wepner fight against Ali to write a screenplay about a fighter getting the opportunity of a lifetime, and coming this close to becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. We know him as Rocky Balboa. But another filmmaker also was interested in the story of Chuck Wepner. Enter Jeff Feuerzeig, who wasn't as interested in Rocky Balboa, but rather... The Bayonne Bleeder, Wepner. So Feuerzeig set out to tell the story of Wepner in an ESPN 30-for-30 documentary called 'The Real Rocky" and then followed that up by writing the screenplay for a feature film titled, "Chuck" starring Liev Schreiber. Nobody knows the story of Chuck Wepner better than Feuerzeig and he joins us this week on the 50-year anniversary of when this unheralded fighter got into the ring with the most famous boxer of all-time, and stood toe-to-toe with the great Ali for 15 rounds. Feuerzeig tells how he first heard of Chuck as an 11-year old kid and the fight Wepner had against Sonny Liston that was the bloodiest battle one could imagine. The Sundance Award winning director for The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Feuerzeig tells the story of how over 30 years after the Ali fight, he was able to tell the story of the Real Rocky on ESPN's signature series and how the ensuing court battle of the former mariner Wepner vs the Hollywood icon Stallone was more a matter of honor and recognition than anything else. March 24, 1975 had Chuck Wepner on the cover of Sports Illustrated... the day he and Ali battled in Cleveland, Ohio for all the world to see... Wepner's 15 minutes of fame, turned into 15 rounds of theatre... and Jeff Feuerzeig tells the story better than anyone and shares it with us on the Past Our Prime podcast. Listen, download, review... all that good stuff... wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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