Ali-Chuvalo-1966

Lets not pretend Rocky had a world class defense, Charles and Walcott both tee'd off on him at will, Moore had him down, LaStarza supposedly deserved the first fight, ancient Louis outboxed him for periods. He out worked these guys with greater stamina these

You sort of contradcted yourself in that statement, if Chuvalo wasnt taking shots to his chin then maybe he had as good defense or better as Rocky?

Its reasonable that Ali would tee off on Marciano easier than Charles/Walcott being faster with a greater reach and more bodyweight weight behind his shots. Its also reasonable that Marciano gets hurt more than Chuvalo in this 1. People don't rate Ali's power but he hurt Liston (1), Foreman, Frazier, Bonavena amongst other

 

Walcott landed well, Charles not so much. LaStarza could hardly find Rocky in their second bout. Louis did outbox him but he wasn't landing too many punches, he just controlled the pace with his jab early on.

My point was that Chuvalo wasn't taking punches flush on the chin but he still took a lot of scoring punches, on the side of the head, the forehead, nose, but he avoided most of the really dangerous blows.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNnA9vCXGgw[/ame]

 

Maybe the Rock would have won more rds than Chuvalo, well, wouldnt be hard considering George only won one rd.... but Ali would likely have taken him more seriously than he did Chuvalo.

Id always pick peak Ali over Marciano, I think he`d outclass him for the majority of the fight for a clear UD.

 

Chuvalo had a top chin but his power was average,he rarely stopped a topliner .

 

I'd say he was a pretty solid puncher and most people who fought him felt his power. A lot of the times he just wasn't given the opportunity to land his blows, he was way too slow and crude.

Think the fact that he rarely stopped top liners has more to do with Chuvalo not being a top liner himself.

 

Pretty solid is acceptable,"brutal power", is not ,imo.
As to being a top liner.
Chuvalo was rated as follows.
1963 .9
1964 .5
1965 .3
1966 .8
1967 .0
1968 .4
1969 .0
1970 .7
So for 8 years he was only twice out of the annual ratings,and he was no 8, the year he fought Ali for the title.
He may have been slow and crude, but I think he qualifies as a topliner.

 

Well, it depends on what your view of a top liner is. He did knock out most of the men he defeated, 64 out of 73, a few of them being top ranked opponents.

He was never going to knock out Ali or Frazier but he did have his moments against them. Chuvalo was one of the only one's to drop Quarry with a punch on the chin.

 

But he couldnt drop Folley or Ellis ,or Corletti,nor Bonavena.How many ranked contenders did he stop? Apart from Quarry,did he floor Patterson? No.Mathis? No Terrell ? No. 38 year old Cleve Williams? No.
Not brutal power.imo.

 

A tough fight for Ali, he'd be definitely peeing blood afterwards. But Ali still gets a decision.

 

This fight was originally supposed to be a title unification between Muhammad Ali vs Ernie Terrell, WBA Champion, title unification bout was scheduled to be on March 29 1966, but it was soon discovered that Terrell's management had ties to organized crime, the bout was scrapped. In Ernie's place was George Chuvalo, who did give a good account of himself against an unusually heavy Ali, who came in at 214 lbs.