Ali without an exile would have been the fighter he was in 1971 against Frazier. So 1960s Ali was better. Always would have been. It's like Holmes versus C00ney, It's still a good Holmes but the 1979 Holmes was better. Yes Ali was "back to where he would have been" had he not been exiled by the time he beat Frazier. It's Edge of prime. The 18 rounds or so beating Fraziers best challengers (better than Frazier had) in the time Joe did two rounds was the best proof you can get. No way Ali could have preserved 1967 form all the way to 1971 if had been as active throughout.
I like George a lot but if you read the article, he mentions that he had so and so ready to go out, or they shouldn't have stopped the Foreman fight, yadda yadda. Chuvalo always had excuses. No way he ever beats Frazier (who fractured his eye socket. No way he would have beat Foreman (did you see him turn away there at the end with his shoulder saying, in effect, I don't want no more? Quarry had him a bloody mess before that weird ending. My hero Patterson simply outworked him in MSG in Feb. 65 taking major bombs from Chuvalo in the process (china chin anyone?) He had zero quality wins in his career. Doug Jones? DeJohn? Come on! Quarry? OK, but IMO that fight was still an anamoly. He said he was robbed against Terrell? How about a thousand jabs and a hundred rights to your head? To his credit, he was a tough SOB and someone that many had to get thru for a title shot; my only complaint is his constant whining and his thinking that he was a TOP threat throughout his career which he wasn't. My somewhat limited $0.02
I agree but this applies to a lot of fighters, Foreman included, where he claimed to have been poisoned prior to the Rumble in the Juggle fight, had his water taken, the list of excuses is endless.
I'll have to revisit the Ali 2 fight that he says writers thought he won, it never comes up in any threads. i doubt Foreman was about to gas out that much. I'll check that out I like Chuvalo but I kind of rolled my eyes reading that
He is amazing. His book is a worthwhile read. I wonder what he could have done with better management.
I agree. I like Chuvalo and plan on buying his book soon, but yeah he was never short of excuses. I guess most fighters are like that.
That's my point exactly. I also think that from a fighter's perspective, as long as you're standing you always have a chance of winning. If you don't believe that, you probably shouldn't even be in the ring. That said, I also think Chuvalo achieved what he could, with the talent that he had. He was the Canadian champion for some ungodly number of years, something like 25 but at the very highest level, he simply wasn't good enough to win, despite having a chin of granite. Outside of the ring, the guys a legend to those who are familiar with his story, which sadly aren't enough people.
What the man had to endure in his private life makes the punishment he took in the ring look like a joke. He did have an iron chin, but he had a reinforced titanium character as well. Props to him for coming through it all without hating the world. Very easy to hate everything when tragedy repeatedly strikes. George thankfully was better than that.
What it does for me is make me appreciate the losers more. Can you imagine the ***** it takes to get in the ring with a guy like Foreman, knowing you probably don't have the skills to beat the guy?