THE WAR ZONE: Revisiting Classics (Vol. 2 - Oscar Bonavena vs. George Chuvalo)

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What a pair of opposing forces:

The ****-talker versus the gentleman.

The reigning Argentine champ, ascendant from points subequatorial, his world contender days still ahead of him, versus the reigning Canadian titlist, descending from up north, his world contender days now in the rear-view.

A thunderous hitter (although George had some heavy enough ham-hocks of his own) versus the iron chinned warrior (although Oscar was himself tough as boiled owls)

From their climes - separated by eighty longitudinal degrees - to their personalities, these were two disparate men. What they shared in common, besides craniums imported from Easter Island, was a knack for giving their spectators occasion to hoot and roar - in short, their money's worth every time.

So it was a foregone conclusion that anyone in attendance at MSG would be in for a white-knuckle adrenaline ride as the gladiators entered with hungry desperation - both a single unremarkable victory removed from their last setback.

Bonavena showed a bit of maturity in becoming a bit more the stylist than during his rise up the ranks. This wasn't the hard charger outclassed by Folley, but a more dynamic mover who led the dance and made Chuvalo look clumsy in his attacks. Bonavena would intersperse double left hooks with his jab while turning Chuvalo like a dial and then deal with incoming right hands by either rolling with them on a rubbery waist or using his own right arm for a catchpole if not dodging it outright with a few hastened lateral steps. All the while Bonavena peppered in as many counters as he could (favoring his powerful left hook/uppercut hybrid but showing off everything in his offensive playbook) and tied up before he could tire or get caught with a hand in the cookie jar. So it wasn't quite the grenade swap patrons may have expected but it was damn entertaining, and Chuvalo snapped Bonavena's head back with plenty of right hands and landed furious barrages to his body enough to keep the drama alive until the scorecards were read.

Unfortunately, we can't say for sure how fair the cards were since the available uploaded footage comprises barely half the match. (although from that it does seem Bonavena was controlling the action for the most part)

Now, there are said to be avaricious parties out there - some of them frequenting this board! - possessing copies of this and other gems in their entirety, but who inexplicably refuse to share them online for posterity. If they do wind up taking such treasures to their graves with them, may they rot in hell.

Equally unfortunate is that a rematch never materialized. Toward the end of the decade or early 70's, they could have come full circle at the crossroads and put on a nice fireworks display (both settling their score - either revenge for Chuvalo or validation for Bonavena - and providing us with more of what hopefully would have been filmed savagery).

This has become essentially reduced to a curiosity, mostly given only an ephemeral glance as historians debate over whether Bonavena should have been credited with a knockdown on a shove-cum-punch in the 4th. It deserves better. Even incomplete, the surviving and readily accessible bulk of it warrants appreciation. Of course, some benefactor filling in the blanks would allow for a totality of viewing experience that it truly deserves.

 

Thank you.

Yeah, I had been thinking I probably will make up a collation archive for these at some point. :good Maybe once the ball is rolling with a few more installments in the coming weeks.

 

I am of course kidding.














...the afterlife is a fairytale! :bananamaniac




Seriously, though - if anyone has or knows of a dusty old reel or VHS tape or Betamax or anything containing precious boxing footage that isn't currently at the public's fingertips...be they in a trunk full of a deceased relative's belongings in some dusty attic or whatever...get them uploaded, PLEASE. For a lover of this sport no tragedy is more bitterly senseless than seeing great nights of yore gone to waste for reasons other than cameras simply not having been rolling. (ie getting permanently lost, or destroyed, because nobody in a surviving estate knew or cared of their value to a very passionate if niche community)

At the very least, pass them on to someone with the inclination and capability to properly transfer and digitize the old media. Don't just relegate them into oblivion for sheer laziness or in the greedy hopes that you can "get something for them". Future generations having a complete library of classics is more important than whatever a hypothetical E-bay ransoming could do to help anyone's immediate financial concerns.

 

I also don't see why the long-standing controversy over whether Bonavena decked him and was gypped of a 10-8 ruling. Had the decision gone to Chuvalo, then it would demand scrutiny - but Bonavena took it with or without the extra point (though it would've made the difference between a Unanimous and Majority decision, altering the drawn card of Mercante a point in Bonavena's favor) and it's hardly among the greatest referee bungles you can point to in history. There was a punch, yes - but there was also clearly a shove. It's a call that could justifiably go either way. It bore no relevance on the outcome nor on either man's legacy, except as relates to Chuvalo's ballyhooed invincibility myth (which is another quaint little curio that has become unfairly homogenous with Chuvalo's remembered identity. Most today free-associate the name - not undeservedly - with toughness but know little else about him. "Oh, he is that hard ******* that fought Ali on both sides of his exile (if they even know that)". His skill and power are underrated and lend him considerable h2h clout, and Bonavena himself is overlooked for having been such a character in his day and often treated like Chuvalo as but a footnote in the CV of The Greatest.

 

Check in next Thursday to find out. :hey

 

Multiple current or former ESB posters have boasted of having an unedited copy of this...yet can't be put upon to share it.

God I hate people.