Sadly, in 1986 Wepner was arrested for possession of cocaine and wound up doing three years in prison. An interesting footnote character.

he's cool, and "Rocky" remains the best American screenplay of the postwar era

Chuck's a character, and I'm a huge Ali fan, but the 'WTF?' look on his face when Wepner knocks him down is absoultely priceless.

Also, I've been reading Nick Tosches' Sonny Liston bio and while I don't much care for Tosches' music writing, on other subjects he's great. And Liston's a study in himself, one of the few truly bad motherfuckers in the history of American sport, makes Tyson look like a choirboy. Because it's a proven fact that men named Sonny (or Junior) are always badasses.

(and I'm with you on Rocky, paisan. On Valentines Day pips bought me DVD's of that and The Godfather, she knows the way to my heart.)

Also, I'd recommend seeing Ring Of Fire the story of the ill fated Emile Griffith-Benny Paret fight and it's aftermath. Here, also is a clip of Griffith fighting Hurricane Carter, two controversial men in the ring.

Has anyone ever done a history of all the 'Great White Hopes' of the last thirty years, like Gerry Cooney and Tommy Morrison? It must be a kind of fucked up burden to have pinned on you.

Ali got some grief in the 70s trying to by a house near us in Pittsburgh, because he allegedly just wanted a party house near the Steelers and the Pirates. Someone in my HS class wrote him a letter calling him a pussy, and he showed up outside the third period class to ask him out "behind the library." It was all covered by the local press.

He didn't knock out Ali, he knocked him down (the only time Ali got knocked down when Ali was the reigning champ). Wepner lost the fight by TKO in the 15th round.