Sports Poets Society

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/08/sports/antuofermo-counts-out-a-rocky-boxing-career.html By Michael Katz Dec. 8, 1981 Credit...The New York Times Archives See the article in its original context from December 8, 1981, Section D, Page 27 He never learned how to duck an opponent or a punch , and yesterday, during an eight-day period in which Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali were attempting pathetic comebacks, Vito Antuofermo , at the age of 28, announced his retirement from boxing with the same straightforwardness that marked his ring style. ''Knowing when to leave the party is something all of us find hard to do,'' Antuofermo, the former middleweight champion , said at a luncheon thrown for him by Bob Arum, the promoter of his five world title fights. Few recent fighters have had fewer basic skills than Antuofermo and few have earned more respect. ''We're honoring a man who's given so much to boxing,'' Arum said. ''He gave his all in ever...

https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/tss-where-are-they-now-chuck-wepner/ Articles of 2009 Published 18 years ago on March 23, 2009 By John James Professional boxing could use a few more men like Chuck Wepner . At a time when the sport faces its biggest identity crisis in decades, and continues to lose market share to the rising popularity of no-holds-barred MMA leagues like UFC, the ghost of old school boxers like Wepner looms large. Wepner was nicknamed the ‘ Bayonne Bleeder ’ after a bout with vicious Sonny Liston under the hot lamps of the Jersey City Armory . Liston went to work on Wepner’s face so bad, that by the tenth round, Wepner’s nose and cheek were broken. In the end Wepner had sprayed ringside reporters and fight fans with so much blood, he needed 72 stitches to stanch the flow . In his professional career Chuck Wepner compiled a record of 35 wins (17 by knockout), 14 losses and 2 draws. And he squared off against some of the hardest men ever to lace up the gloves, men like George Fo...

THE DAILY NEWS, ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND, MARCH 25, 1975 Falls in corner  after winning CLEVELAND (AP) Muhammed Ali , fighting when he felt like it, tempered Chuck Wepner with left jabs and flurries of punches to the head in the late rounds and stopped the challenger in the final round of their 15-round heavyweight title fight Monday night . Ali knocked Wepner down in the 15th round and when the count reached eight, referee Tony Perez signalled the fight was over. There were 19 seconds left in the 15- round fight , but it had been over for Wepner long before that. No sooner had the fight ended than Ali fell to the floor of the ring, near his corner, as his handlers rushed to his aid. It was not apparent what was wrong with the heavyweight champion, but Ali appeared groggy after he regained his feet. Meanwhile, Wepner's handlers carried the fallen challenger to his corner and had to hold him to keep him from falling off his stool. It appeared that Wepner was going to go the lim...

Not in peak condition and overweight but ... CLEVELAND (AP) - Muhammad Ali, not at peak condition and at one of the highest weights of his career, is still fa- vored to beat Chuck Wepner tonight and retain the world heavyweight cham- pionship he took from George Foreman in Africa. Ali showed up Sunday at the Coliseum, site of the fight, about three hours before the nationally-televised weigh-in and shadow boxed four rounds and skipped rope for two. When he stepped on the scales, he weighed 2232 pounds. He has been heavier, but it's the most he has ever weighed for a title bout. He scaled 227 when he fought Buster Mathis in 1971 and 226 when he beat Mac Foster in 1972. "Look at me now," Ali shouted at ABC commentator Howard Cosell. "You tell everybody how fat I am, but look at me now." The champion had weighed 225 after aturday's workout. But although Ali boasted about his weight being lower than many observers had thought it would be, he has said during work...

https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/robbie-fowlers-conspiracy-theories-are-a-giant-leap-for-stupidity Football The former Liverpool striker doesn’t believe in the moon landings, so I won’t recognise his entire career The Observer - Thursday 5 November 2026 Illustration by Ionut-Claudiu Vancea Giles Smith In a crushing blow to the legacy of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and everyone involved in the flight of Apollo 11, Robbie Fowler has declared that the moon landing was “bullshit”. Now, it’s well understood that, in order to dismiss the American space programme on the basis of little more than a hunch, an ex-footballer must be in possession of either a surprising level of confidence in the value of his own intuition or a start-up podcast that could use a nudge.  And, in this case, we have to note that Fowler chose to go full conspiracy theorist on a new chat outlet he shares with his former Liverpool team-mate Steve McManaman. So perhaps we can frame this cont...

FRANK P. TOMASULO "Movies and Cultural Contradictions" American Cinema ot the 1970s: Themes and Variations Berg, Oxford (UK), 2007 In this extremely popular but predictable film, world heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed ( Carl Weathers ), an obvious Muhammad Ali surrogate, decides to give an unknown boxer a break when his scheduled opponent bows out of a bout at the last minute. As part of this clever publicity stunt, a down-and-out, out-of-shape journeyman club tighter, the dim-wined “Italian Stallion” Rocky Balboa ( Sylvester Stallone ), is chosen to be that lucky man. Religious themes and images abound, as well as various aspects of an All-American Horatio Alger story . This low-budget sleeper relied on patriotic appeal, religious sentiment. class antagonisms, submerged racism, and ambivalent male chauvinism to attract the highest U.S. box office receipts of the year--$57 million--and the highest worldwide grosses of the year--$225 million--all on a budget of only $1.1 ...

FRANK P. TOMASULO "Movies and Cultural Contradictions" American Cinema ot the 1970s: Themes and Variations Berg, Oxford (UK), 2007 In its bicentennial year, the United States was wracked by disillusionment and mistrust of the government . The Watergate scandal and the evacuation of Vietnam were still fresh in everyone's mind. Forced to deal with these traumatic events, combined with a lethargic economy (8.5 percent unemployment), energy shortages and OPEC price hikes of 5 to 10 percent, high inflation (8.7 percent and rising), and the decline of the U.S. dollar on international currency exchanges, the American national psyche suffered from a climate of despair and, in the phrase made famous by new California governor Jerry Brown the previous year, "lowered expectations." President Gerald R. Ford 's WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons did nothing to bolster consumer/investor confidence and were widely perceived to be a public relations gimmick to paper over st...

Getty Images Chuck Wepner photographed in his native Bayonne in 2006 https://www.bbc.com/sport/64392108 ​ 26 January 2023 Ben Wyatt BBC Sport in New Jersey The 83-year-old Chuck Wepner stands 6ft 5in tall , with broad shoulders and heavily knuckled hands; bone calluses serve as reminders of a life spent punching.  His vocation as a fighter scarred other parts of his body, too.  "I was a big bleeder. I had 328 stitches in my career. My nose was broken nine times in 16 years . And, uh, it never fazed me, you know?" Wepner tells BBC Sport, with a shrug.  In fact, so likely was his face to suffer injury in the ring that he eventually adopted the nickname others gave him as an insult.  The Bayonne Bleeder - Bayonne being the New Jersey town that Wepner still calls home - was a fighter who lived up to his billing.  So maybe it was fitting that the most famous bout of his career came soaked in claret. " Tony Perez was the referee for my fight with Muhammad Ali ," r...

6 Nov 2026 - Rheinische Post - Mönchengladbach and Korschenbroich VON SEBASTIAN KALENBERG Borussia Mönchengladbach kämpft mit Coach Alexander Blessin am Freitagabend beim Hamburger SV um den Anschluss an die Konkurrenz. Der Verein muss aber abseits der sportlichen Situation noch andere Baustellen abarbeiten. Jürgen Klopp beruft einen Kader aus erfahrenen DFB- Größen und jungen Talenten wie Kölns Said El Mala oder Neuling Wael Mohya von Borussia Mönchengladbach. Der Bundestrainer findet damit eine gute Mischung für das übergeordnete Ziel: eine erfolgreiche EM 2028. F OTO: CHRISTIAN CHARISIUS/DPA Setzt beim DFB auch weiter auf das Kölner Talent: Jürgen Klopp (l.) und Said El Mala. DÜSSELDORF Der Frust der Fans vor den letzten Nominierungen war oft groß: Statt den kompletten DFB-Kader vom Bundestrainer präsentiert zu bekommen, sickerten die Namen bereits in den Tagen zuvor durch und wurden so vorab von Medien und Journalisten veröffentlicht. Diesmal war das anders: Bis auf das Comeback vo...