This is a guy that Chuvalo would have eventually found and would ko him in 9 or 10. Mesi couldn't hurt him of course, and he wouldn't be able to finesse him for very long either. Georges steady pressure and rough house game would pay off late.
Chavalo wasn't a good boxer or good puncher, but he was tough and never stopped coming. Mesi could out box Chavalo, and probably hit hard enough to get Chavalo's respect. Interesting match up. In a short match, I think Mesi takes it. If its over 10 rounds, then I like George.
I think this is really a close match. Mesi is looked at very critically by the public eye, and Chuvalo is remembered with a sort of positive sheen because he fought in the "Golden Era," faced Ali, Foreman, Frazier, etc., and was a well-liked fighter, and, of course, because of his legendary chin. However, the fact is that on the whole, he was a limited fighter and not an elite contender. Mesi is often criticized for his heavily-padded record- a criticism which is largely true, as he has only fought three world-ranked opponents in a 36-bout career and has compiled many of his wins against obscure clubfighters. However, this criticism, on an objective scale, goes very much both ways; while Chuvalo did fight many great champions and top contenders, he lost the overwhelming majority of those fights, and boxrec lists 30 of his 73 wins as having been against opponents with records .500 or below. Much of his career, particularly the second half, largely consisted of him touring Canada beating local clubfighter-level opposition, then facing a world-class opponent and losing, and repeating the cycle. It is true that Mesi only narrowly defeated Monte Barrett and Vassiliy Jirov, and had a perilous scrape with being knocked out at the end of the latter fight, but, again, looking on a balanced scale, one can see that Chuvalo also struggled with quite a few non-elite opponents, and in fact he actually lost to lesser men than Barrett and Jirov while in his prime. Pete Rademacher, who was a top amateur, but largely a flop as a pro, and Eduardo Corletti, an obscure South American journeyman, were pretty clearly not as good as a Barrett or Jirov, I'd say, and both beat Chuvalo in his prime. Bob Cleroux and Buster Mathis beat him as well, and Tony Alongi took him to a draw. I'd say Chuvalo's "embarrassing" results are worse than Mesi's. That said, Chuvalo does also have a greater set of accomplishments to his name; wins over Quarry, Jones, DeJohn, etc., very close, disputed losses to Patterson and Terrell, and courageous efforts in losing to Ali amount to more than what Mesi has done to date. All-in-all, I'd say that if Mesi fights an intelligent and disciplined match, he can probably take a UD, but if he does anything like what he did against Barrett and Jirov, it would follow more or less the same path, except Chuvalo would finish the job.
This is a very good match, and I see valid points for taking either fighter. Chuvalo's win over Quarry is what makes me think he would win here. I don't believe Quarry had Mesi's power, but I do think he was better. I believe the fact that he could get to Quarry means he would get to Mesi.
Never mind what George Chuvalo would do to Mesi, Jerry Quarry would have destroyed him. Don't even try to agrue with that one, just consider the Quarry that destroyed Earnie Shavers in 1 round, then just think of what Jerry would have done to "Baby Joe". Chuvalo ko9 Mesi, Quarry ko1 Mesi.
Beat Mesi ??? Not only that, but he would be champ if he was fighting today. 64 K.O's That speaks for itself. They bring in guys special for Mesi.
