Chuck Wepner was a career liquor salesman and a boxer of some note, at least in his home state of New Jersey. Then two things happened.

In 1975, he somehow ended up in the ring for a championship fight with Muhammad Ali. While everyone expected Ali to make short work of the lightly regarded Wepner, the man who would become known as the “Bayonne Bleeder” went almost the full 15 rounds and became something of a folk hero by doing so.

Then one other thing happened that would change Werner’s profile. “Among the observers on the closed-circuit television broadcast was Sylvester Stallone, a struggling 30-year-old actor who identified with the gutsy Wepner so much, he raced home and wrote the first ‘Rocky’ screenplay in just a few days.” (Robert Mladnich, March 8, 2025 nyfights.com)

Wepner would henceforth be known as ‘the real Rocky.’ As for the other nickname “What Chuck Wepner did best in the ring was bleed. Indeed, his nickname was a twin tribute to his New Jersey home town and his infinite capacity to leak crimson. He was known far and wide as ‘The Bayonne Bleeder.’” (Bill Lyon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb 11, 1990)

Wepner would resume his otherwise undistinguished boxing career until he retired in 1978. Undistinguished, that is, except for a couple of rather unusual spectacles. One of those was the 1976 ‘Showdown at Shea,’ a wrestling match between Wepner and Andre the Giant.

Before the match, Wepner told Bob Waters of Newsday Services (May 20, 1976):

“Say listen, I met the guy. He’s got a head this big. (Wepner holds his hands about two feet apart). How am I going to miss him. And he’s got a 56-inch waist. I’m going to look quick as lightning by comparison.”

Here’s one account of what happened to Wepner at Shea:

“Five years after the bout, in a profile on Andre for Sports Illustrated, Terry Todd wrote, ‘In the third round…Wepner really clocked the Giant as they broke from the ropes. Whereupon Andre, in a more than usually fell swoop, angrily snatched his smaller opponent into the air and pitched him forthwith over the topmost rope, ending the bout.’” (F4Wonline.com, Nov. 11, 2018)

One of his next opponents was even bigger. A bear. Twice.

“The first Victor that Wepner fought was defanged, declawed, muzzled and intoxicated. The bear weighed between 400 and 800 pounds, depending on how unreliable your source was.

“A nightclub czar called Artie Stock, who owned the Royal Manor club in New Jersey, offered Wepner the fight against Victor. It was a challenge; it was cash and Wepner accepted.

“‘I was told not to hit the bear,’ Wepner recalled. ‘What was I supposed to do? Tell the bear a story? The bear wanted to kill me.’

“The first fight with Victor was ugly.

“‘I was hitting the bear with jabs, hooks and the bear was starting to get crazy,’ added Wepner. ‘Then it got me and threw me 15-feet up in the air. People said I put on a great show and I said: ‘Are you out of your mind, this bear tried to kill me.’” (BoxingNewsOnline, Feb. 23, 2022)

 Apparently both of those encounaters were pronounced draws.

Some fame and some money, however, brought about a change in Wepner’s lifestyle.

“I was a big shot everywhere I went,” he said. “There was so much booze and broads. I was out of control, a crazy man. I had some heavy friends and was running with some crazy people. And everywhere I went, there was cocaine.” (Robert Mladrich, nyfights.com, March 8, 2025)

That eventually led to an arrest and conviction. This AP dispatch is from March 16, 1988:

“Former boxer Chuck Wepner, the ‘Bayonne Bleeder’ who once fought for the heavyweight title, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison after admitting to cocaine charges. Wepner, a liquor salesman who lost a bid for the title in 1975 against champion Muhammad Ali, was arrested in Sayreville in November 1985 as part of an undercover police investigation, said Assistant Middlesex Prosecutor Ron Kercado. The former boxer admitted in December to conspiracy and possession of cocaine. He claimed in court he had become addicted to the drug but did not sell it for profit. Under a plea bargain agreement, Wepner faced up to 10 years in prison, and that was the sentence handed down Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Joseph F. Deegan Jr.”

How did Wepner make out in prison? He tells this story:

“Wepner said no one in the New Jersey penal system gave him trouble – with one exception. ‘One inmate tried the first day I got there,’ Wepner said. ‘He said that if I bought him cigarettes every week, I wouldn’t get hurt. So, by way of introduction, I slapped him across the face, jammed his head against the cell bars, and threw him around for a while. We became good friends after that.’” (Mark Czerwinski, The Record, June 4, 1991)

Wepner was released after serving a little less than three years.

In 2002, Elise Young, a reporter from The Record (Dec. 19, 2002) visited Wepner in his Bayonne home.

“The day starts at 10 in the bayside condo Wepner shares with his Linda, a glamorous former bartender he married 12 years ago. The place is floor-to-ceiling mirrors and teal wall-to-wall carpeting and bronze sculptures and green Astroturf on the balconies.

“The phone is ringing. The fax machine is on the fritz. Already he’s running late – he has errands and a bunch of liquor stores to visit, and he needs to drop by the sales office in Carlstadt. So it’s a quick kiss for Linda and he’s off.

“The DeVille, parked in the spot nearest the condo building’s rear door has a special white finish. It’s one of those options the dealer offers, and it makes the thing sparkle at night. The car really wasn’t complete, though, until Wepner added the red ragtop and the ‘CHAMP’ vanity plates. His wife just rolled her eyes.”

In 2003, Wepner filed a lawsuit against Stallone seeking $15 million. “The boxer had maintained that he never got paid as promised, while Stallone countered that Wepner made money out of his public appearances as the ‘real Rocky.’ Stallone never denied Wepner’s role in the creation of the lucrative character…” (The Guardian, Aug. 3 2006) The suit was eventually settled.  No terms were disclosed.

Throughout it all, Wepner remained a hero in his hometown. In 2017 he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame with a ceremony at Convention Hall in Asbury Park.

More recently a statue of Wepner was dedicated in Bayonne.

“Chuck Wepner, the heavyweight slugger who inspired Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa character when he shockingly knocked down Muhammad Ali in the ninth round of their 1975 championship bout, was honored Saturday with a larger-than-life bronze statue in his hometown of Bayonne, N.J.

“It’s a fitting tribute for the popular brawler known as the Bayonne Bleeder for usually ending up battered and bloody, win or lose.

“‘Unfortunately the face looks exactly like me,’ Wepner, 83, joked about the monument unveiled at Dennis P. Collins Park just across the water from Staten Island.  (Brian Niemietz, NY Daily News, Nov. 13, 2022)

Wepner had also been the subject of a mural in Bayonne. 

“A mural of Chuck Wepner, the original inspiration for the ‘Rocky’ films, was unveiled this afternoon at the Bayonne Community Museum to a crowd of nearly 200 people.

“The mural depicts Wepner in his signature pose – a mean mug splayed across his face, Spartan boxing gloves at the ready, and championship belt wrapped around his waist.

“Wepner, 75, described the mural as ‘breathtaking.’

“’I know nobody who embodies a person from Bayonne like Wepner with everything in his life; his career, (and) his service to our country,’ said Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis. ‘This man has represented for Bayonne for 70 years. As a friend, as an ambassador for the town, thank you very much.’” (Steven Rodas, nj.com, March 21, 2015)

But there was one problem.

“The owner of a three-story building on Broadway who was shocked to find a towering mural of ‘real Rocky’ Chuck Wepner on the side of his property last month is saying he’ll put up with it for three years.

“Mr. Shi, 35, of Bayonne, who co-owns 737 Broadway with his family, told The Jersey Journal he wouldn’t have said ‘yes’ to having the mural on the side of his building, but now that it’s already up there, it can stay there for three years.
“’Personally, I don’t like it,’” he said.” (Jonathan Lin, The Jersey Journal, July 18, 2015) 

The building owner had the mural painted over in 2019.