George Chuvalo, one time Canadian Heavyweight Champion. He went 15 rounds with Cassius Clay and acquitted himself well. Ali later said that Chuvalo was the toughest man he ever faced. What might not be so well known is that Chuvalo was married, with four children. All of them died from either drug overdoses or suicide. I was actually at the Gladstone Hotel for a Sunday night jam session, when one of his sons (after the fact, I learned) was wheeled out on a stretcher, covered in a white sheet. After the death of the last of her children, his wife committed suicide. But after all of that, Chuvalo remained positive. I remember watching a televised interview with the man, and he talked about his family. He was smiling and cheerful. I gained a lot of strength from that. That is some kind of tough! Fast forward to a year ago. I met a man who became a street friend. He identified George Chuvalo as his father, with another woman. At my request, he was going to introduce me to his father, who was doing well at age 92, living in a retirement home in a classy area of Toronto. Sure! No problem! But then we lost touch and I started asking around. I got the word that this son had died too. Smoking Fentenyl, a powerful opiate. Damn! But it was always my intention to look Chuvalo up on Facebook, but I kept putting it off. I waited too long. I get the word recently that Chuvalo has slipped into dementia, he’s pretty much gone, just the body is left. Double damn! Anyways, there is a street outreach center in Toronto that he funded, that is named after him. So typical of the man, to turn something negative into something positive. So I will say: “rest in peace now, good man. Hope you aren’t suffering”. Damn damn damn. https://www.google.com/search?q=Geo...qvwcyf8QUjC8y6r8HMnw&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Fbear, George had 3 sons that passed away plus his wife. His son Mitch and daughter Vanessa are still alive. George is 88 and in a nursing home as far as I know
Maybe, maybe not. But I'll tell you one thing, Chuvalo would start salivating when he saw Fury's waistline.
Chuvalo was like Chisora in that he could basically drag anyone into a hard fight but that meant the same could be true of “lesser” fighters… one day Ali another Corletti. I actually like Chuvalo he’s a business man he fought everybody and did what he could (I don’t like dirty fighters usually…) but he did everything he could to win and as a man he carried himself very well and made a lot of money to provide for his people.
****, at first glance I thought we'd lost him. But he's still fighting and hanging in there. Warrior.
