Like boxer Vinny Pazienza, actor Miles Teller loves Las Vegas

As much as boxer Vinny Pazienza loves Las Vegas — he was known to enjoy the city’s nightlife as an active fighter; now he’s a regular at N9ne Steakhouse at the Palms — he fought just three of his 60 bouts here.

But two of those — his Nov. 7, 1988, fight against Roger Mayweather at Caesars Palace and his June 5, 1994, comeback bout against Roberto Duran at the MGM Grand — bookend the new biopic “Bleed for This,” which chronicles Pazienza’s return to the ring from a broken neck that should have left him paralyzed.

“Dude’s an animal. … I mean, Vinny loves strip clubs and gambling. You know, he’s just such a character, man,” says Miles Teller, who portrays him in the movie. “But you just look at the heart that he had and the will and just the passion for boxing. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime person.”

Teller is no stranger to Vegas himself. While “Bleed for This” was filmed entirely in Vinny’s native Rhode Island, Teller shot scenes for this summer’s underrated “War Dogs” at Caesars Palace. He’s also spent many a birthday here, even getting in the DJ booth at Hakkasan a couple of years back.

“Man, Sin City, you know? It’s just, you know, it’s a place they take care of you,” he says of his fondness for the city. “Anything you want seems kind of available there. Look, I like casinos, I like to dance, and I like to drink. I like to let loose. So Vegas for me is like a perfect place to go.”

If you’re looking for Teller during the summer, his favorite place on the Strip is in the water.

“I like Wet Republic, because I grew up in Florida, and me and all my buddies, like, if the sun’s out and we can get in a pool and we can drink beer, there’s just no place else that we would rather be.”

If you’re looking for Teller this week, though, he’s scheduled to walk the red carpet with Pazienza — who had his last name legally changed to Paz in 2001 — at 7 p.m. Thursday for a “Bleed for This” screening at Brenden Theatres at the Palms.

The two have seen each other far more after completing the movie than while Teller was preparing for the role.

“I was playing Vinny 25 years ago, and I didn’t wanna get confused about the guy that I was playing,” Teller explains. “I’ve gotten to spend more time with him afterwards. I remember, I was in Vegas with him, we were watching the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight together. Not at the fight, but at some kind of viewing party.”

“Bleed for This” opens at Caesars Palace with Vinny in his room, wrapped in plastic on a stationary bike, desperately trying to cut weight. In an attempt to delay the weigh-in, the officials are told that Vinny went to the wrong hotel. An aggravated Roger Mayweather (boxer Peter Quillin) responds, “How many Caesars Palaces they got in Las Vegas?”

Later, Vinny is shown playing blackjack late into the morning of the fight, splitting 10s on a $10,000 hand, then sprinkling the $1,000 chips over his girlfriend’s naked torso. That night, he takes a beating so brutal his own promoter, Lou Duva (Ted Levine), says on HBO that Vinny should hang up his gloves.

Eventually, Duva sets him up with down-on-his-luck trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart), who persuades Vinny to stop crash-dieting and fight at his natural weight, which sets him on his comeback trail. Then, sneaking away from training to gamble at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino, Vinny is involved in a horrific car wreck that breaks his neck.

He immediately asks when he’ll be able to fight again, but his doctor isn’t sure he’ll even be able to walk. Vinny refuses fusion surgery that will guarantee he’ll walk in order to have a halo brace screwed into his skull for six months — during which time even the slightest bump could sever his spinal cord — to keep alive even the faintest hope of a return to the ring.

Before long, Vinny begins training in secret in his Providence basement, against the advice of doctors and the wishes of his family. Vinny being Vinny, he also heads out to a strip club and leaves his own birthday party early to go play $10 blackjack at a local casino.

For his role in the Oscar-nominated “Whiplash,” Teller famously became a proficient jazz drummer. And for “Bleed for This,” he underwent a grueling diet and training regimen — including four hours a day of boxing and two hours a day lifting weights — that took him from 188 pounds and 19 percent body fat to 168 pounds and 6 percent body fat.

“I enjoy that. I just like the challenge of it,” Teller says of learning a new skill set for his roles. “And for this, with the boxing training, man, there’s no kind of training like boxing training. … And I just think it adds some authenticity to the final performance.”

After counting every calorie for so long — during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” he spoke of having a staring match with a Jolly Rancher before passing up the tiny treat — Teller, much like Vinny, wasted little time going back to his natural weight.

At the wrap party, Teller says, “they had pizza, and I remember I just grabbed, I had a whole pizza to myself, and I just wrapped my arms around it. I actually woke up with a pizza box next to my bed. I ate the whole thing.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.