George Chuvalo passed away this past weekend at the age of 89. Tough doesn't describe Chuvalo, who fought in probably one of the greatest eras of heavyweight boxing, and he fought everyone of the top heavyweights of that time. His personal life was an absolute horror story. I don't know how he survived what he went through with his family. R.I.P.
The heavyweight champion took on the likes of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and was known for never once getting knocked out or knocked down.
www.bbc.com
I was going to post his death notice in the weekly update.
He was literally the last of his era as as far as I know he out lived everybody that had any relevance in his era in boxing and even out lived Foreman who slammed the door for Chuvalo's contender days with a one sided beating on national television where Chuvalo was nearly out on his feet but wasn't weak in the knees.
If Chuvalo was blessed with more hand speed he may have won the title and aside from Frazier nobody did anything but make his face swell(Frazier broke an eye socket) I remember Chuvalo claimed Terrell who was half a foot taller only hit his gloves and shouldn't have won the majority of the rounds since he was hitting Chuvalo's guard not his face with punches. I think his promoter Irv Ungerman stated that at least one judge of the fight was taking orders to give Terrell the fight as Ernie was controlled by the Chicago mob and Ernie was being set up to fight Ali in a unification bout.
For his shot against Ali George only got the shot because another fighter pulled out and he was available and he was a local draw so Ali gave him the shot in Toronto. The fight played out similar to Rocky I without the last round heroics. I remember seeing in a documentary Ali actually backed off trying for the knockout halfway through the fight as George wasn't going anywhere with his iron chin and Ali went into sparring partner mode with a flicking jab and time wasting ring moves to save energy.
George's best win was probably an accidental win over Quarry who was dropped and missed the count and rose at the count of 10 but a boxer needs to rise at 9 and change not 10. George had plenty of wins over fringe top 10 guys who kept him ranked for a decade or so,
As you said his personal life was a mess as 3 sons perished due to drug usage and two were perennial jail birds who were in and out of jail and prison due to crimes committed to get their hands on heroin. One even died in a rundown hotel that I actually delivered courier packages to for a client of community law firm for I assume an indigent client. This hotel had frequent police visits to arrest junkies holding narcotics and the front desk had a sign about no drug usage or prostitution in the hotel rooms both decrees were ignored in this flop house.
In his last few years he was staying in a rehab hospital in a vegetative state as he stopped responding to commands from people. He is in a better place now...
PS his one son that was never hooked on narcotics inherited his build but was significantly shorter and was on scholarship at Massah Bowden's football plantation as a defensive back. His son later became a bit of a high school coaching legend in the dwindling Toronto football scene. He won the coach of the year for the country at one point and coached at the high school that George went to.
