Did Ali ruin Terrell?

While Wepner was down 5-3 and 6-2 on the scorecards before the KD he had gotten at least 1 judge on half the rounds. Yes Wepner got shutout after the knockdown but at the moment with 6 rounds to go it was a live fight with one scorecard being tied and a second being seperated by 2.

 

The Wepner fight was more entertaining.

 

I will grant you that.

 

I can see how Our Chuck inspired Sylvester Stallone.

 

One thing you can't accuse Wepner of is running from a probable beatdown. Wepner fought Liston, Foreman, Ali, Buster Mathis, Bugner, Terrell. These are probably the 6 biggest top "superheavyweights" of Wepners era excluding himself and Wepner took a beating in 5 of these 6 fights. Wepner could have taken advantage of his size advantage way more tried to fight Quarry, Patterson or Ellis. Wepner is the anti Tony Galento in that way. Maybe thats why he became the inspiration for Rocky Balboa.

 

It’s not that I think Ali ruined him. It’s that he reached the pinnacle of the sport but he failed. It’s kind of like guys who win the championship then just stop training as hard and really don’t care. He gave it his best didn’t win and shrugged his shoulders like countless other contenders. Honestly to many to name had amazing records then just sucked after losing in a title shot. It’s rare you get a Quarry, Povetkin, or Norton that just stays professional and ready despite losing their shot.