George Chuvalo vs Tommy Morrison

Other than a fluke against a Quarry I have no idea who Chuvalo ever beat. George was pretty slow. I'd favor Morrison but a Quarry style later round occurrence is certainly possible since Tommy's chin is a question and George is not going anywhere.

 

Good post. You may be right.

I don't see Chuvalo taking it to Morrison right away though. Yes, Chuvalo could take a legendary beating but I don't see him being able to delivery his attack very well while he's taking all those punches.

Ray Mercer was pretty much taking a one side beating prior to the 4th round (late in the 4th round). Mercer stopped Morrison in the 5th.

Morrison was quick and had a good work rate.

Chuvalo had a good punch but he wasn't a slick boxer and he wasn't really fast. He lost decisions to Zora Folley and Floyd Patterson among others. Folley and Patterson were very good but neither was known for their durability. They were able to outbox Chuvalo and withstand his power when he was able to land cleanly.

Morrison was stopped by Mercer, Bentt, and Lewis. He drew with Puritty. He was down in all of the losses and the draw. He was also down vs. Carl Williams and Razor Ruddock... he stopped both of them.

He stopped James Tillis and Pinklon Thomas in back to back fights, both by 1st round TKO. Then came his loss to Mercer, LKOby5. He stopped Jerry Halstead in the 9th round, Joe Hipp in the 9th round (he suffered a broken jaw and hand in this fight), Carl Williams in the 8th round, he beat George Foreman by 12 round decision. Then came his loss to Bentt, LTKOby1 (3 knockdown rule). Then he drew with Puritty. He stopped Razor Ruddock, KO6. Then he was stopped by Lewis, LKOby6.

I don't know which way to go on this to be honest. Gonna have to think on this one for a bit.

 

Bonavena 195? Ho, he was 5' 10 1/2", lean at 218, heavily muscled for the era, built like Tyson, & unlike Morrison no indication of using PEDs. Frazier said fighting him was like "moving a refrigerator" around the ring.

I can see a case being made either way.

 

Frazier fractured the orbital bone of the eye socket, he shattered nothing.

 

I think Morrison inflicts enough early damage to get this fight stopped before Chuvalo can drag Morrison into the trenches.

 

Actually, Bonavena was not plodding in that one, and displayed good skills and footwork in wins there is extant footage of. Chuvalo was about as immobile and slow afoot as any famous heavyweight since 1950 (I'll throw Marciano in there too.)

Tommy surprised a lot of people with his counterclockwise circling born of necessity by Foreman's shoving in their match, and if Chuvalo could make Foreman and Frazier give ground and move around a bit, maybe Morrison would do the same thing he did with Foreman. In that situation, Tommy's speed could be a telling factor. But he's not doing attrition with Chuvalo.

 

TORONTO TANK TKO 9

 

George didn't beat a lot of top five contenders, but he did beat Yvon Durelle, Mike DeJohn, Doug Jones, Manuel Ramos, and Cleveland Williams, and all in a pretty impressive fashion.

 

Impossible for Tommy. George by knockout no later than 7.