The name Jerry Quarry comes to mind... George Chuvalo... Chuck Wepner...
Ah,yes, Chuck Wepner...
The "Bayone Bleader"
According to Stallone he was the inspiration for Rocky. Except for losing all of his big fights, that is...
One of the first pay to view satellite broadcast fights was an exhibition (from Japan) with Ali against a Japanese kick boxer. They set up Madison Square Garden with some of the early huge projection TV screens (spotlight size red, green and blue projectors that they had to laboriously line up to get a proper color picture).
They had a preliminary bout live in the Garden. That fight was Chuck Wepner vs Andre the Giant.
Wepner threw two vicious rights directly at Andre's midsection (it was as high as he could reach) and THEY BOUNCED OFF. Andre then picked up Wepner and threw him into the third row of spectators. End of fight.
I loved it.