64-year-old boxer who inspired Rocky sues Stallone for €14m

THE BOXER whose bloody but courageous battle against Muhammad Ali inspired the Rocky films is suing Sylvester Stallone for compensation.

Chuck Wepner, also known as the "Bayonne Bleeder", claims Stallone promised him a share of the proceeds from the first Rocky blockbuster that was to spawn a series of four sequels together grossing income of more than €1 billion dollars.

But, nearly three decades on, Wepner says he has yet to receive a dime, and now he is taking the creator of the fight game's most celebrated fictional character to court in an attempt to get what he believes are his dues.

The Bayonne Bleeder? Well, he was born off Bayonne Bay in New Jersey and made a career out of being beaten up . . . badly. After one fight against Sonny Liston, doctors inserted 72 stitches to slashes and cuts around his eyes, nose and mouth. Against George Foreman, the needle-count was 51.

Then there was his nose. Having survived all but the final 19 seconds of a scheduled 15-round world championship challenge to Ali in 1975, he told doctors to forget about repairing his nose: "This is the fifth time. It's Silly Putty now."

Among those enthralled by Wepner's heroics in the showdown with Ali was Stallone, then a struggling actor. He was so inspired by Wepner's performance the outsider thought to be good for just three or four rounds actually floored Ali in the ninth that he spent the next three days dashing off the screenplay to one of the most popular boxing films ever made.

Wepner said he was assured there would be rewards for his part in the success story.

"There have been a lot of promises along the way, a lot of handshakes, a lot of projects to come. But nothing has come from it. After 28 years, even an ex-fighter starts to figure maybe this guy is not going to keep his word."

Wepner's €14 million lawsuit is being handled by lawyer Anthony Mango, who explained: "Stallone has been using Chuck's name, and continues to this day, in promoting the Rocky franchise without permission or compensation."

Vintage footage of the Wepner-Ali fight featured in a special edition DVD of Rocky released in 2001.

Wepner, now 64 and living in an apartment overlooking the Newark stadium where he scored the first of 35 wins from 51 professional fights, said: "I like Stallone. He has done a wonderful job with the Rocky movies. I just thought somewhere along the line he would do something for me the way he said he would. But that has not happened, and it has become a personal insult to me."

A liquor salesman who would later serve time for a drugs offence, he was one of those larger-than-life characters who helped maintain heavyweight boxing's hard man image during the Seventies.

He sparred more than 70 rounds with Smokin' Joe Frazier and put Foreman on the canvas in his time. But it was his wisecracks and storytelling that made the high-rolling and hard-drinking Wepner so popular with the public and the media. His best story concerned the day of the bout with Ali.

"I bought my wife a powder-blue negligee and told her 'honey, wear this tonight because you'll be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world'. After it was all over and I'd been beaten, I returned to the hotel, and there is my wife wearing the negligee and sitting on the edge of the bed. She just looks at me and says 'do I go to his room, or will he be coming to mine?'"