Should George Chuvalo be inducted into the hall of fame?

chuvalo and frazier fought outside that tourament

 

i never interfered,i just stated he was in the top 10 in 1958 2 years after becoing a heavy.you know what record george has never off his feet as an amature in sparring or as a pro in 93 fights,chuvalo will tell you he had 97 pro fights

 

As far as I can tell, he was ranked in the yearly Ring rankings six times between 1963 and 1970, not really exceptional.

Oscar Bonavena was ranked 7 times between 1966 and 1974.

Lee Savold was ranked 7 times between 1939 and 1950.

Henry Cooper was ranked 7 times between 1958 and 1970.

By the way, Oscar Bonavena defeated Chuvalo, and I would also favor Savold and Cooper to outpoint Chuvalo.

 

henry coopers management wouldn't let cooper fight chuvalo he was to rugged they stated.chuvalo tied to get henry in the ring for years for a british commonwealth fight brian london wouldn't fight him either
as wheather chuvalo goes into hof,thats for their board to decide isn't it?

 

I haven't read the tread but I will chime in on my opinion of Chuvalo, both as a boxer and as a human being.

As a boxer he fought about 93 fights without getting KO'd and fought some of the best fighters ever, Ali, Foreman, Frazier etc. Lost all the tough fights his biggest win being against Quarry.

But is boxing just how one does in the world stage? He was the Canadian heavyweight champion for about 15-20 years, that should count for something.

And if you take into account anything outside the ring, he'd be a shoe in. Here are some of his accomplishments.

Chuvalo was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998 and was awarded a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2005.

Now in terms of his outside activities, George had I believe 4 sons. Three died of drug overdoses and his wife committed suicide over this. As a result, George has spend the reminder of his life talking about the consequences of drug addiction, and speakers mostly at high schools.

If this isn't a person worthy of being in a Hall of Fame I don't know why it even exists. He was never knocked out in the ring or in life, and he fought much tougher battles outside the ring than he ever did inside. And his contribution to Canadian boxing alone should get him in the Hall.

 

chuvalo told me,boxing was easy compared to life.its nice you have that wealth of knowledge about big george,i knew all that myself but i think most on this board don't

 

George Chuvalo is a Canadian boxing legend who stood as our country's national champion for twenty years. Ranked as high as Number Two in the world, Chuvalo stayed in the top 10 for most of his career and appeared numerous times on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Incredibly, in 97 professional fights in a sport where toughness is part of the job description, Chuvalo was never knocked out or knocked down.

From the first time he picked up Ring magazine, Chuvalo knew he wanted to become a boxer. He trained hard and moved quickly up the amateur ranks, turning professional in 1956 at the age of 18. In 1954, Chuvalo had been the first boxer chosen to represent Canada at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne; in those days, however, amateur athletes received no financial backing and Chuvalo had to make the decision to bypass the Olympics and go pro in order to support himself.

Chuvalo was young, tough and the hottest up-and-comer in Canadian boxing. Most experts agreed he had a bright future ahead of him and he emerged as the top contender for the Canadian Heavyweight title. "I used to dream of being champion," Chuvalo said at the time. "The thrill of combat, the thrill of winning, it's just something I know I want to do."

On September 15, 1958, three days after his 21st birthday, Chuvalo realized his dream of winning the Canadian Heavyweight title after knocking out James Parker just two minutes into the first round.

But Chuvalo had bigger dreams. He wanted to be Heavyweight champion of the world. Chuvalo racked up an impressive record against formidable opponents and by 1962 he had achieved Number 2 in the world. Chuvalo's first big break came after he KO'd high-ranking Doug Jones on October 2, 1964 in New York's Madison Square Garden. Two bouts later, on April 30, 1965, Chuvalo was back in the Big Apple, only this time against Floyd Patterson, former two-time world champion, with the winner getting a shot at Muhammad Ali's title. In this bout voted "1965 Fight of the Year" by Ring magazine, Chuvalo and Patterson went head-to-head all twelve rounds with Patterson winning by decision.

Later that year, on November 1, 1965, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Chuvalo got his first shot at the title against World Champion Ernie Tyrell. Again, Chuvalo forced the fight through a full fifteen rounds. After the bell, media swarmed Chuvalo's corner, eager to be the first to interview the new champion. They and most boxing experts were shocked when the referee announced that Chuvalo had lost the match by decision.

On March 29, 1966, Chuvalo fought the first of his two famous title bouts with Muhammad Ali, again at home at Maple Leaf Gardens. With only 17 days notice, Chuvalo was fearsome in the ring and forced Ali to defend himself through 15 long rounds. Midway through the 15th round, Chuvalo landed four vicious blows to Ali's jaw and a wicked right to the head, but was unable to put Ali down for the count. Although Chuvalo lost the fight on decision, Ali later said, "He was the toughest man I ever fought." And Chuvalo quipped, "Guess who went to the hospital and guess who went out dancing with his wife!"

Chuvalo would face off again with Ali in 1972 in Vancouver, and also take on the rest of the best of his era including Joe Frazier, Jerry Quarry, George Foreman, Manuel Ramos, Alex Miteff and Willie Besmanoff.

By the time he retired as undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Canada in 1979, Chuvalo's professional record was an impressive 73 wins (64 by knockout), 18 losses and two draws.

After Chuvalo retired, he remained in the public eye in numerous films, television shows and commercials, including a turn as the barroom bully on the wrong side of a famous arm-wrestling match with Jeff Goldblum in David Cronenberg's The Fly.

Since 1995, Chuvalo has taken on a new role - as a tireless and inspirational anti-drug advocate and public speaker. Tragically, Chuvalo has lost three sons to drug abuse and suicide; overcome with grief, his first wife took her own life after the death of their second son.

Chuvalo has made over 1,000 appearances in Canada and the U.S. to students, Young Offenders and youth-at-risk, support groups and many others to talk about what happens to a family when one of its members uses drugs. Through his program, Fight Against Drugs, Chuvalo also encourages youth to respect themselves and make prudent choices like staying in school and loving one's family. In 1998, Chuvalo proudly received the Order of Canada for this work.

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Seems to me that's Hall of Fame material no matter how you define who should go in and who shouldn't.

 

wow, thats a good story, thanks

 

Vanboxingfan & bigjake--I am not going to criticize or debate against you for supporting a man you clearly admire as a man.

I edited my former comment.

 

Thanks Old Fogey, you've always been a class poster.

In terms of his impact on boxing in Canada, it ranks up there with anyone, including Lennox Lewis. If nothing else it's pretty obvious he's a man that always tried his best, even if he did come up short in his biggest fights.

And his personal quest speaks for itself , and you are correct, as a man he's handled adversity better than anyone I know, and Kudo's for taking the death of his 3 kids and trying to turn it into a positive for others. Many other, perhaps including myself, would have simply sulked or drank their lives away.

So as you can see, he's much admired in Canada, particularly by boxing fans and we as fans are incredibly proud of his accomplishments. It puts boxing in a very positive light, and that should count for something when determining who gets inducted into the Hall of Fame and who doesn't, but that aside, he was the Canadian Heavyweight Champ for some 20 years, so it' not just his outside activities that making him a deserving inductee, it's the combination of what he's done both inside and outside the ring that warrants his induction.

 

Yeah, now let's argue that Chuvalo was Sam Langford's equal or his superior. This has been ridiculous enough already, adding up whatever happened outside the ring as a merit for ring accomplishments, or claiming regional achievements mean so much (European heavyweights were bad enough, and Canada was much-much worse than Europe back then), now a second-rate contender is more deserving than an argueably P4P Top 5 fighter with achievements Chuvalo could never ever dream of.

 

why don't you cool your heels,stop going on so badd your all negative when was sam langford ever a heavyweight guy?how boxers act outside the ring reflects i'm sure on their career.who went on vacation and left you in charge anyway?