I recall Kirkman's corner said that he was holding together well mentally, until that happened. The push just broke his confidence, before the fight really began.
chuvalo was one of the strongest mother****ers in the history of boxing, the guy was built like a caveman, 217-220 ****ing pounds solid like rock , in 6´0 of height, and it was was all natural, not packed of muslce in the gym,and no fat, he was a monster, chuvalo looked the stronger man against frazier , and frazier was a bull, frazier moved ali like a rag doll in the first fight, simply foreman was a beast.
Foreman was just awesome, powerwise...I love how he battered the heavy bag, with poor Dick Saddler hanging on for dear life during the whole time.
Chuvalo was most definitely the strongest man in the ring when against Frazier. He hung tough against Frazier until his eye socket was crushed and ended the fight. Several times during their fight, Frazier tried to push Chuvalo back. Chuvalo litterally just stood there and didn't budge. He even effortlessly shoved Frazier 6-7 feet away with one arm at about 2:45 of the below video. [yt]bkggQMKOzdg[/yt] The only person that I saw clearly show they were stronger than Chuvalo was Foreman, who litterally nobody ever outmuscled in the ring.
Ron Lyle had Foreman going in retreat numerous times during their fight. Lyle was a strong man, and he showed that he could hang with Foreman.
That was more Foreman's choice rather than Foreman being unable to push Lyle around. Whenever Foreman made his mind up that he wasn't going backwards, there wasn't a fighter around who could make him go backwards.
Good thing foreman had big heavy arms, because that is what he punched with. Sometimes he'd turn one over, but he was a caveman swinger.