Chuck Wepner doc

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUZfWQzv1aY[/ame]

 

Yes, Chuck is a very good friend of mine and ESPN actually contacted me for some information and I received a credit at the end of the film. I just talked to Chuck last week.

The movie should be out in a couple of months.

 

did he really knock down ali or step on his foot? it looked like a knock down to me.

 

That was a fun film. The bit with the bear was some surprising entertainment haha

 

I went to a few of Wepners fights, he was a tough guy but bled all over and could not punch at all and was very slow but he was a tough ******* and did not quiver at his own blood. His skill level was also pretty neanderthal.....Rocky Balboa may have beaten him but Chuck would make him work

 

I took a break from guitar practice to watch it. Very very interesting.

I thought when I read Chuck talking about the "Mike Douglas Show Debacle" that he was puffing up Ali's ability to talk. Turns out it really happened and there was footage to boot.

I was annoyed at first that I thought they let Chuck get away with saying he actually knocked down Ali. Later they imposed the two-way sight of the KD. Chuck (and a few others) thinks he did other don't. I wish that there was better footage of that KD. If it really happened it really adds to the myth of the "never say die" style Chuck contained. One hell of an ugly fighter.

Really funny seeing his fight with Sonny Liston. Chuck got slammed by Liston's long jab and various other power punches. Never saw any of that footage till then.

I can also only imagine his potential title fight with Foreman would be no different than the time that Foreman smashed him in his early career.

 

thanks for posting. chuck's story, and all the others like it, is what makes boxing so special.

You couldn't make it up. Better than fiction. Thats why hollywood exploits boxing more than any other sport because it has always been so thick of great material.

 

I hate the idea he's the Real Rocky. The characters are nothing alike (Only in the 1st draft did they bear resemble). Almost everything in this world influences and inspires others. Rarely do you go to bed and dream up something brilliant like Paul McCartney did for Yesterday. Had Sly never said anything nobody would even know. That's the reality. He should be grateful he's even associated with the series.

 

Watching it now. Wrong for Sly to deny the inspiration as an idea for a movie (Nobody gets shot, goes distance, etc). However, I don't blame him. Chuck hardly deserved anything. The characters are different. The loan sharking is enough to think Sly researched Wepner and stole this from him but it's possible. Running up Hudson steps (How would Sly know this?). People already accuse Sly for copying Frazier because he ran up the steps. I don't think any sane person thinks Stallone invented the act of running up steps, not even those steps. **** is getting absurd.

 

the simple fact is, stallone literally took aspects of the man's life and reworked them for the screen. without that inspiration rocky would've never existed. if anything, stallone should be grateful that he had the honor of attending ali-wepner. it spawned a billion dollar franchise. the fact that wepner didn't try to bleed stallone dry for publicity/personality rights is a tribute to chuck.

 

has anyone read "jersey boy" the Frankie depaula story?

DePaula was more like the stalone character - and he got a shot at bob foster.

Stalone took a bunch of stories from boxing folklore, in fact everything in the series was stolen from something that actually did happen.

Rocky 3 was a combination of floyd patterson v sonny liston with a frazier v foreman2 twist only with frazier winning.

 

patterson vs liston with a frazier foreman 2 twist? sounds far-fetched. in the wepner documentary there were actual interviews of stallone attributing ideas to wepner's life and career, not to mention uncanny similarities between the storyline and what happened in his life. I think it goes without saying that alot of what happned in rocky was inspired by wepner. whether or not it morphed into something else as the series progressed, is irrelevant. his surplus of blood, sweat, and more importantly his life, started the whole series.

 

Without life experiences, and the inspiration from such experience virtually nothing would exist. What aspects of his life did he literally steal and rework for the screen? The only thing specific was the loan-sharking but who knows if that's a coincidence. I don't get the whole publicity/personality rights argument from the lawyer. Wepner wasn't deprived of promoting himself (They showed him doing so in the documentary with his card of dropping Ali).

You could be right in a sense, though. Stallone had a habit of copying things he saw. The Mickey speech in Rocky V about nature is eerily similar to the stuff Cus D'Mato said in interviews around the time Tyson was becoming a prodigy.

 

Inspiration was attributed. The idea that he create a character Rocky, much like Wepner which was somehow likable and translatable. There's nothing concrete that says Rocky is Wepner. In fact, the characters are more different in personality than they are alike. When did Wepner ever think he was a bum?

You could say the exact thing for almost anything. Pure creation rarely exists. We are influenced and inspired by the world around us. Hell, how many stereotypical prototypes have the life and character of Randy "The Ram" from The Wrestler? About a million. In fact, that's story far less unique and common than Wepner is to Rocky. Art imitates life. Had Sly said nothing nobody would even be talking about this. Not Chuck, nobody. Chuck should be grateful he was recognized as a source of inspiration. And he did get some money out of it I believe.