The Birth of Balboa, 33 Years Ago Today

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
On this day in 1975, a heavyweight fight was contested in Richfield, Ohio that ultimately gave birth to the greatest fictional boxer of all time, not to mention one of the greatest fictional patriots of this or any other era.
In the early seventies, Sylvester Stallone dwelled on the fringes of legitimate Hollywood success, with some bit parts in major films to his name (Klute, Bananas) along with some renegade porn work. But it wasn’t until 33 years ago today that Stallone truly found his muse in the unlikely person of Chuck Wepner, The Bayonne Bleeder, who fought Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title and managed to knock the champ off his feet before succumbing to TKO in the 15th and final round.

As has become legend ever since, this is the historic mismatch that inspired Stallone to write the screenplay for Rocky, maybe the greatest sports movie ever made. It is a key part of the Stallone/Rocky legend that United Artists was at first adamant that an established movie star play the lead-role (with names like Burt Reynolds, Steve McQueen and James Caan on their short list) but Sly stuck to his guns and insisted that if he was not cast as the film’s star he would not sell the script.
And so it was. In the original screenplay, Rocky Balboa throws the fight with Apollo Creed out of disgust with the whole boxing industry, which would have been much in keeping with the grand tradition of Hollywood’s “boxing equals corruption†type fare, from The Harder They Fall to Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Of course, in the end cooler (and greedier) heads prevailed, and an even more beloved Hollywood trope made the screen in – the downtrodden underdog who makes good. In fact, Rocky almost broke the mold of the underdog film, winning Best Picture for 1976, turning Stallone into a gigantic movie star (and thus, giving us John Rambo in a two-for-one deal) and exerting an influence on almost every sports/underdog film that came after it. And all because on March 24th, 1975, a longshot tomato can from Jersey knocked The Greatest of All Time on his back and then almost went the distance in a bloody fight that, much like Rocky itself, was half comedy and half tragedy.↵