Best I've faced: George Chuvalo

Chuvalo's win over Quarry was legit.
It makes no sense to criticize Chuvalo for forever making excuses for losses, and then the next breath make an excuse for why Quarry lost to Quarry, or minimize it by dismissing it as a 1 out of 100 "fluke".

 

I was really referring to all Chuvalo's reasons for losing, I agree with you about rationalizing the Quarry fight,you can't have it both ways.:good

 

:good
Yeah, I don't take Chuvalo's excuses seriously.
He seems like a nice guy and was "a tough SOB" as they say, he gave it his all in the ring, so on balance he's a likeable guy. Fighters who don't have excuses are rare.

 

I don't think I've ever seen so many excuses in one article...

 

I've just read Chuvalo, a fighters life and half of the book seemed to be about excuses for his losses.
I've also recently read books about Jerry Quarry and Ezzard Charles and for some reason I rated the Chuvalo book a distant third
Now you've mentioned his excuses I realise why.....d'oh.

 

In defence of Chuvalo, he was fighting Ali on late notice in 1966 (Terrell had pulled out), I don't know if it was "17 days" but that sounds about right. Someone might want to check.

Also, it sounds outrageous, unbelievable, but the referee DID lift Mike DeJohn to his feet before giving him a standing eight count ! Helped the man up, then called it a knockdown.
The fight is on youtube, and it is clear as day. The 2nd KD in round 6.

So, those two "stories" of Chuvalo's I think are accurate.

 

I have always respected Chuvalo as one of the toughest guys that ever fought but he is one of the classic excuse for every loss fighters .. every single time .. If the Foreman fight continued Chuvalo could have been killed .. the fact that he claims otherwise just proves my point ..

 

But in compensation for having to take the Ali fight on short notice, the referee did generously allow him to throw as many low blows as he wished.

 

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs3/1498216_o.gif

 

I don't hold his excuses against him either.

 

:good

 

Like I said, I don't think there are many fighters out there who don't think they have a chance of winning if they're still on their feet, especially the one's with granite chins, because they don't believe they can get hurt.

I pretty much guarantee they're not thinking if I get hit a couple of more times I'm gong to die, rather they're thinking if I can just land my best Sunday punch, I can turn this around. That's precisely why you need ref's, doctors and a trainer, so they can watch what's happening in a more detached way and hopefully stop a fight before a fighter gets seriously hurt.

 

I agree it's the pride and ego thing.I like George too ,and I'm glad he doesn't appear to suffer from the effect of some of those horrendous punches he took, he seems articulate and witty.

 

I think it's interesting this George (Chuvalo) is so different than the other George (Foreman).

Chuvalo does have a healthy ego it seems but I don't think he downgrades his opponents. He speaks of their flaws and strengths very matter of factly. He should know as he was in the ring with them.

On the other hand, I don't think Foreman ever met a fighter that didn't scare him. He has claimed at times he was terrified of Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle. The story has gone around that, while champion, he ducked Jerry Quarry because he was fearful of losing to him. I think George is likely being overly generous at times to his fellow warriors but that's just his personality.

Anyway, I'm just now reading Chuvalo's autobiography and am enjoying it. I especially enjoyed his account of crashing an Ali press conference in washerwoman costume, complete with bucket and mop, in response to Ali's labeling him as such. There are clips of this on youtube as well. Funny stuff. He could be a showman and he seemed to have a special relationship/bond with Ali. I think Ali knew he couldn't get under his skin the way he did so many other fighters and respected him for that.

 

If you talk to enough retired pro fighters they all have reasons, excuses, as to why they lost. Chuvalo is a real hero. How he carried on after what happened to his family I cannot comprehend. The guy was not only physical tough by he is also made of different and tougher stuff mentally. His one issue as a hwt fighter was his real lack of speed. If he had the speed of even a Quarry he would have been a very tough fighter to beat for anyone in any time period.