Is there a more Jersey story than a guy who becomes a beloved hero for almost winning?
Chuck Wepner grew up in hardscrabble Bayonne. He served in the US Marines. He fought Muhammad Ali in his prime as a huge underdog and stunningly managed to knock him to the mat.
He inspired Sylvester Stallone to write the movie “Rocky.” He bled all over Bayonne Times Editor Rosy Rosenberg’s leisure suit in his 1970 fight against Sonny Liston and earned the nickname “The Bayonne Bleeder.” He did three years in Northern State Prison (“I ran the place.”) He fought Andre the Giant and Victor the Kodiak bear (twice) in Asbury Park.
And that’s just the beginning.
Join Jersey Angle host Brian Donohue as he sits down at the Bayonne kitchen table with 85-year-old Chuck Wepner, the only person whom the governor of New Jersey could possibly bestow with vanity license plates bearing one simple word: “Champ.”
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Episode 4: Chuck Wepner