I know that he doesn't speak English at all and I haven't seen any recent interviews from him but is he punch drunk at all? I would think so with all the fights he had and punches he took.
I dont think there is anyway to really know. Not speaking English doesnt help but sometime over the recent summer for one of his sons (crap) fights he was being interviewed and he seems fine...which is a miracle cause like you said that man took some shots!
Any guy that has well over 100 fights, many of them at a world class level is going to take punches. That said, Chavez didn't get hit nearly as much as you might think. He deflected many punches off his gloves, elbows and shoulders. This is also true of so called easy to hit guys like LaMotta and Basilio, who remained pretty clear headed long after the age where so many defensive geniuses lost it.
Somewhat related, I listened to Tyson do a lengthy interview yesterday on the radio. Maybe it's the absence of drugs in his life, but he sounds better than ever, more lucid, no thickness to his speech, no inordinate pauses or forgetfulness. ****, I have most of the latter and never had Lennox Lewis teeing off on my brain pan.
