Should the Liston v Wepner fight have been stopped???? Wepner was down from a right to the body in the fifth round. The fight was stopped after the ninth round due to severe cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. He required 72 stitches and also suffered a broken nose and a cracked left cheekbone. http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Sonny_Liston_vs._Chuck_Wepner
Wepner said the referee came over between rounds and asked him how many fingers he was holding up?Al Braverman his handler tapped him on the shoulder the required number of times ,Chuck replied correctly and the fight went on. The referee was pretty lenient ,he could have stopped the fight earlier. I think Braverman would have let it continue if Wepner had broken the other cheekbone and accumulated more cuts that would require another 72 stitches. I called him a "handler",deliberately, I put him in the class of the guy that used to parade John Merrick ,The Elephant Man in a cage for the paying public.
Should have been stopped going by the list of injuries for sure .Not as if Chuck was going to turn it around at that stage .
Wepner said the man who really hurt him during his career was Sonny Liston , not Foreman. Sonny had to have been 40, let that sink in.
To be fair Big George was only having his 4th pro fight when he met Wepner and the fight was stopped early before George could really lay a beating on him like Sonny did.
No....Wepner would've rode out the storm and stopped Liston late. Wepner was just having a bad night . On his best night he could have stopped a prime Liston.
When Liston was asked whether Wepner was the bravest man he had ever fought, he replied "no his manager is!"
