![]() ![]() The payday was good, and he took the gamble. The referee stopped the match and Chuvalo lost. In the 3rd and 4th round, the eye swelled shut and Frazier’s big left hook sealed the deal. Chuvalo himself never said he would have beaten Frazier that night, but the fight was close, with Chuvalo even a head a little going into the third round. The result was a TKO (like his later bout with George Foreman), but he did not get knocked off his feet. Frazier’s cannon of a left hook didn’t help matters, and the fight was stopped in the fourth round. He trained through it, but the eye blew up on the regular. He fought an up and coming Joe Frazier in July, 1967 with an eye injury that he had suffered via headbutt the fight before. What people often don’t know is that Chuvalo racked up 64 knockouts and fought seriously injured in some of his biggest fights. Ali just blew through everyone else.Ĭhuvalo is underrated because most people look at his modest record of 73-18 and think he was just a tough “catcher” who hung in there with the greats of his era. He lost, yes, and that is not disputed, but the tough and hard punching Chuvalo took everything Ali could dish out. George Chuvalo is the only fighter to give a prime Ali (1964-1967, pre banishment) a very tough fight. Yet, most people forget that Chuvalo took “The Greatest” a full fifteen grueling rounds, and hurt Ali to the body so bad that he had to be hospitalized. The man was nearly impossible to hit at that point in his career. Like a 6’3, 215lb butterfly with a baseball bat, Muhammad Ali was untouchable, literally. Lightning quick, and hard punching (he didn’t have the hand troubles yet), that Ali was not the slower incarnation that most people remember from the mid 1970s. The 1966 version of “The Greatest” that George Chuvalo fought was Ali at his absolute best. Yes, Ali showed tremendous heart and guile in those matches, but what gets lost is that he was far from his prime and lost his greatest weapon: his blinding speed. Most fans remember Ali’s fights with Frazier (classics, of course), Foreman, and the parade of fringe contenders he beat after the Thrilla in Manila in 1975. A year after the Patterson fight, Chuvalo finally got the break he was looking for: a fight against reigning champion Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight title (remember when there was one champ!?). This match was not a robbery, but the fact that Patterson came from New York certainly did not hurt his chances at getting the nod from the judges. He fought former champion Floyd Patterson in 1965, and many felt that Chuvalo deserved the decision victory over the former champion. Chuvalo then solidified himself as a perennial top ten contender. When he became managed by Irv Ungerman and trained by Teddy McWhorter, his fortunes changed and he was able to train properly and gain more high profile fights. As a result, he was thrown in the deep end too early and too often, and had nearly half (7) of his career losses by the age of 23. However, he was managed by small timers who didn’t know how to properly handle a fighter with Chuvalo’s promise and ability. George’s career had a quick start, as he knocked out four men in one night during one of Jack Dempsey’s tournaments in the mid 1950s. George backed away from nobody and even when he lost, he regularly beat the tar out of his opponents, and they, not he, often had to go to the hospital after the fight. Chuvalo literally fought everyone of note during his long career. He just missed out on fighting Sonny Liston. He also threw down with the era’s top contenders like Jerry Quarry, Yvonne Durelle, Zora Folley, Doug Jones, Oscar Bonavena, Mike DeJohn, and Cleveland Williams. He fought champions Muhammad Ali (2x), Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrell (Chuvalo lost to him in a blatant robbery), and Jimmy Ellis. This is a man who fought at a time when the Heavyweight division was perhaps at its most competitive. If I could think of one high-profile fighter off of the top of my head who was equal parts mismanaged, underrated and misunderstood, it has to be former Canadian Heavyweight Champion George Chuvalo. ![]()
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