The ALI-WEPNER FIGHT on 24 Mar. 1975 was the first major boxing match in Cleveland since the SCHMELING-STRIBLING FIGHT of 1931. The uneven contest matched the reigning heavyweight champion of the ...

Before Rocky Balboa, there was Chuck Wepner. Feeling inspired after watching the Muhammad Ali vs. Wepner 1975 heavyweight boxing fight, a young Sylvester Stallone went home and wrote a script for a ...

RICHFIELD, Ohio (WJW) – It’s hard to believe 50 years ago today, this land once hosted the Palace on the Prairie, the Richfield Coliseum. It’s now gone, but on March 24, 1975, it hosted one of the ...

Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa and Talia Shire as Adrian in Rocky. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) Chuck Wepner may not be a household name, but the fictional ...

A copy photo of former heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner (right) fighting Mohammad Ali in 1975. Ali died at age 74 on June 3, 2016. (NJNP copy photo) BAYONNE -- In the wake of boxing champion and global ...

Boxer Chuck Wepner’s biggest moment came March 24, 1975 when the journeyman boxer, known as the Bayonne Bleeder for his New Jersey hometown and his proclivity to battle on no matter the beating he ...

Boxer Chuck Wepner’s biggest moment came March 24, 1975 when the journeyman boxer, known as the Bayonne Bleeder for his New Jersey hometown and his proclivity to battle on no matter the beating he ...

Chuck Wepner, the ham and egger professional boxer who nearly beat heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and thus inspired the Sylvester Stallone series of Rocky movies, was honored today with his own ...

Andre the Giant was a pro-wrestling superstar. Chuck Wepner floored Muhammad Ali and inspired "Rocky." Together they drew nearly 33,000 fans to New York's Shea Stadium — but was it a real fight or was ...

BAYONNE -- When Chuck Wepner visited the set of "The Bleeder," the upcoming movie about his life, the former heavyweight boxer tried giving actor Liev Schreiber some tips for a unique fight scene. But ...

[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] In 1975, Chuck Wepner, a journeyman fighter known as the Bayonne Bleeder, was convinced he had snatched the world ...