No readers, it is not what you might think. I am not going to launch into a story about my sordid past, not that I have one. After all, I must write a thousand words or thereabouts, and I would come up well short; nor is a “Blue Negligee” a metaphor for the NSW Blues, overrated, expensive, flimsy, and vulnerable to attacks up the middle. You will have to stick with me to find out what I am talking about.
By the time this is published, the SOO series for 2026 will have been run and won. The build-up seems to have been strangely quiet for Game 3. It is the fact that there is so much going on in the sporting world at present and in the world in general, with all the drama around Karl, Kyle, Kylie, Albo, and the wedding of the year between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Origin 3 has been on the backburner. Probably not a bad thing.
There have been some great “underdog” stories in Origin history. The “Nevilles” of 1995 and “worst team in history” in 2020 come immediately to mind. Who can forget the likes of Edrick and Branko Lee, Corey Allan and Dunamis Lui dishing it out to the Blues? I do not think the “Blues” have any “underdog” stories that I can remember. It is hard to be an underdog when you have such a population advantage. There is something different about this year, however. The Maroons are the heavy favourites for Game 3. Deservedly so, given their dominance for all but the last 20 minutes of Game 1, when they had twelve men, and the first 20 minutes of Game 2, when they had some “rub of the green” stuff go against them. For some reason, that does not sit well. In QLD, we like being the underdogs, not the hot pots. It just makes me a little bit uneasy, being the favourites. I hope that uneasiness is misplaced.
Everybody loves an “underdog,” it seems. It is only natural, I think. Sometimes, the greatest stories are not those that end in a magnificent victory, but those that end in glorious defeat. My favourite is the story of Chuck Wepner, the heavyweight boxer and inspiration for “Rocky”, who fought Muhammad Ali for the world title in 1975 in Richfield, Ohio. Chuck was supposed to be “stocking filler” for Ali, in between jostling with the other greats of the era, but his story is a great one.
The day before the fight, Chuck took his wife shopping. He bought her a beautiful blue negligee and told her, “Tomorrow night, you will be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world.” When he returned home after the fight, he was in a terrible state. He was bruised, battered, and beaten. His wife was sitting on the bed wearing the blue negligee and said to him, “Is Ali coming here or am I going to his place?”
Of course, there is more to the story. I imagine the story has been refined over the years and the reality may be different from the narrative that Chuck has peddled over the years, but why let the truth get in the way of a remarkable story. The reality is, he fought Liston, Foreman and Ali and was a sparring partner for Smokin Joe Frazier, so he has a tale to tell, and was a good fighter in a great era. Chuck is still alive; he has outlasted all the greats that he fought. In life, if not in the ring, he has beaten them all.
Ali was paid 1.5 million for the fight, Chuck got $100,000. For the only time in his life, he trained full time. He had always held a job as a liquor salesman. In the ninth round, Wepner knocked Ali down. He headed back to the corner and said to his cornerman, Al Braverman, “Al, start the car, we are going to the bank, we are millionaires.” Al replied, “You better turn around. He is getting up and he looks pissed off.”
Unfortunately, that is where the fairytale ended. Ali gave him a dose of “leather poisoning” from that point on and agonizingly, the fight was stopped with 19 seconds left in the 15th round. He went on to fight “Andre the Giant” in a wrestling match, (Andre won by throwing Chuck out of the ring), and had a match against a Japanese wrestler named Inoki, (another loss). He even got in the ring, not once, but twice, against a real bear, Victor the bear, and was lucky to escape with his life after Victor threw him fifteen feet in the air and started mauling him when he landed. Workplace health and safety were not much of a thing at the time.
He claims to have had 328 stitches in his boxing career (he must have counted them all), including seventy-two from his fight with Liston. When asked why he was so prone to cuts, his answer was refreshingly simple, “I used to walk forward, and I wasn’t very good at stopping punches.” He earned his nickname of the “Bayonne Bleeder”.
Stallone initially denied that Wepner was the inspiration for “Rocky”, but eventually admitted it and they settled out of court. Chuck has certainly had an interesting life and is now 87 years old.
I have renounced my recent retirement from State of Origin at Suncorp Stadium and am heading off to the game on Wednesday night, hoping for a QLD victory. My retirement lasted all of two weeks. I will go around one more time. As Clint Eastwood said, “Don’t let the old man in.” QLD victories have been rare when I have been in attendance in recent years, although I was there for the “worst team in history” game three win in 2020. Hopefully, tonight will provide the same result as 2020. Talk to you all next week.
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That is 3 straight Suncorp losses which is a concern so maybe you should have stayed in retirement but I guess there was a bit of Mr Wepner in you when like him you got back in the bear fight!