On this date in 1939 the Wepner family in New York City welcomed the arrival of a son, Charles. The lad grew up in straitened circumstances in Bayonne, New Jersey where he learned how to fight at an early age. After a spell in the Marines, Wepner became a professional boxer at a high level, earning fights with (and losing decisively to) pugilistic luminaries such as Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, and Muhammed Ali. He once fought a bear, and was reputed to be the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, but what brings him to your attention today is his famous nickname: “The Bayonne Bleeder”.
Since the days of bareknuckle contests, boxers have had nicknames – heavyweight champ James John Corbett, for example, whose sobriquets “Gentleman Jim” and “The Dancing Master” spoke to his stylish technique. Similarly named were “Sugar” Ray Robinson and Archie Moore, “The Mongoose”.
Some monikers are bestowed because of geographical origins — John L.Sullivan, “The Boston Strong Boy” or Argentinian Luis Firpo, “The Wild Bull of the Pampas”. Jack Dempsey was “The Manassa Mauler” and Tommy Hearns of Detroit was “The Motor City Cobra”. Larry Holmes was “The Easton Assassin”. Barry McGuigan who first saw the light of day in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland was inevitably known as “The Clones Cyclone”. Who said Voltairean wit was dead?
Size can get a guy a name. Italian heavyweight Primo Carnera was called “The Ambling Alp”, “The Gentle Giant” and “The Vast Venetian”.
Some nicknames were racial, as in the case of Peter “Black Prince” Jackson or Gerry Cooney, “The Great White Hope”. Did you know that, before he was dubbed “The Brown Bomber”, Joe Lewis was saddled with hearing himself referred to as “The Dark Destroyer”, “The Sepia Socker” and “The Coffee-Colored KO King”?
Many sportswriters cannot avoid puns and so we have Michael “Second to” Nunn or Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquaio. Breidis Prescott defeated hitherto-unbeaten Amir Khan and was thereafter known as “The Khanqueror”. James Broad could not escape the tag “Broad-Axe”.
Most boxing nicknames, however, attempt to convey an aura of menace. Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran; Jake LaMotta, “The Raging Bull”; “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier; “Bonecrusher” Smith (who actually had a university degree in business administration); and my favourite, Marco Antonio Barrera, “The Baby-Faced Assassin” whose scientific thrashing of the insufferable Prince Naseem Hamed was such a pleasure to watch in 2001.