Real Rocky — The

: Wepner lasted until the final 19 seconds of the 15th round before the referee stopped the fight.

: Wepner later sued Stallone for using his life story to promote the franchise without compensation. They eventually reached a private out-of-court settlement in 2006. The Real Rocky

: After serving time in prison in the 1980s for drug possession, Wepner turned his life around. He spent decades working as a liquor salesman in New Jersey and remains a local legend in Bayonne. Other Pieces of the Puzzle : Wepner lasted until the final 19 seconds

: The training sequence where Rocky punches slabs of meat in a cold storage locker was a direct lift from Frazier’s real-life training at a Philadelphia slaughterhouse. : After serving time in prison in the

While Wepner was the primary catalyst, the character of Rocky Balboa is a mosaic of several boxing legends: