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George Louis
Chuvalo is a retired Canadian heavyweight
boxer
who was never knocked down in ninety-three professional
fights between 1956 and 1979. He is often considered to have
had the greatest chin in the history of boxing. He was
Canadian heavyweight champion as both an amateur and a
professional, and twice fought for versions of the
professional world's heavyweight title.
Chuvalo is best known for his two
fights against
Muhammad Ali.
He went the distance both times in each case losing the
decision by a wide margin on the scorecards. The first
fight, on March 29, 1966 would have been for Ali's world
title but boxing politics caused it to be staged as "a
heavyweight showdown" instead, although it was scheduled for
and went the fifteen round championship distance. "He's the
toughest guy I ever fought", said Ali of Chuvalo after the
fight.[1]
Ali's cornerman,
Angelo Dundee,
said, "He never stopped coming on ... you've got to admire a
man like that."[1]
The second Ali fight was in 1972 and went twelve rounds,
with Ali—between his world championship reigns—winning an
easy decision. It was the last major fight of Chuvalo's
career.
Future world champions
Joe Frazier
and
George Foreman,
despite being big punchers, were unable to knock Chuvalo
down, but they were the only fighters to stop him, scoring
technical knockout (TKO)
victories. Foreman, regarded as one of the hardest hitters
in boxing history, mauled Chuvalo bombing him with punch
after punch. Yet, in his typical display of toughness, when
the referee stopped the fight in the third round, Chuvalo
said to him, "What are you, nuts?".
Chuvalo's biggest victories were a
seventh-round knockout of contender
Jerry Quarry
on December 12, 1969, and an eleventh-round knockout of
contender Doug Jones on October 2, 1964. Chuvalo also
defeated notable fighters such as Howard King, Bob Cleroux,
Yvon Durelle,
Willi Besmanoff,
Mike DeJohn,
Cleveland Williams,
and Manuel Ramos. Chuvalo was the number one contender for
the British Empire heavyweight title for many years but
champion
Henry Cooper
did not fight him.
In addition to his losses to Ali,
Frazier, and Foreman, Chuvalo also lost to former champion
Floyd Patterson
in a bout that
The Ring
named
fight of the year
for 1965. He lost to
WBA
heavyweight champion
Ernie Terrell
in 1965 and to former WBA champion
Jimmy Ellis
in 1971, with both of those fights taking place at Maple
Leaf Gardens.
Chuvalo lost three sons, Jesse
Chuvalo in 1985 to suicide, Georgie Lee Chuvalo in 1993 to a
drug overdose and Steven Louis Chuvalo in 1996 to drug
overdose. He lost his wife to suicide after the second son
died. His remaining son, Mitch, became a teacher at
University of Toronto Schools
and married his wife from El Salvador, Ivania, with whom he
is raising two boys, Aaron and Elijah. His daughter Vanessa
has two girls, Adelayde and Michaella.
George is happily married to his
second wife, Joanne Chuvalo, and is stepfather to her two
children, Jesse and Ruby. George and his wife tour high
schools speaking about the devastation of drug use to teens.
They have a summer home in
Midland, Ontario. |
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