Were George Chuvalo’s Last Few Fights Televised?

I remember there was a Canadian documentary I saw years ago about Chuvalo's comeback to boxing at that time. It was sad, George was really overweight, it showed him doing roadwork, and he was huffing and puffing. They mentioned his opponent in the film, I think his name was Bob Finkelstein? It didn't show the fight or the mention if he won or lost to my knowledge.

 

Oh George won for sure, We would definetly known had he lost, one of those opponents was Tommy Burns, Duane Bobick's one round pro debut opponent. -Remember George in 'Avengers go to Canada" George picks a fite with a big guy who was actually a killer robot and gets killed lol.

 

George also appeared in the 1986 film The Fly as a guy who lost an arm wrestling contest to Jeff Goldblum resulting in Chuvalo suffering a compound fracture.

 

He was really fat in that movie too, he looked bloated.

 

He really was. George appeared in bit parts in a lot of films during that era. Chuvalo was really fat during the 1980s but in the next decades he was more recognisable.

 

He looks better nowadays then he did back then. Even his face back then got really fat, I wonder if he was drinking a lot back then. I know nowadays he goes around talking to young people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, losing 3 sons to heroin, and a wife to suicide, very sad.

 

Sadly, George has been suffering from dementia for several years now. He also has brain injury allegedly caused by boxing.

As to drinking - I doubt it. I’ve never read that being an issue in his life and of course given his own families experiences with drugs and his crusade against same, far more likely he didn’t touch drop - but I can’t say for sure.

Otherwise, his only vice might’ve been overrating to deal with the traumas and tragedies of this life.

Below os one of the more recent articles re George: -

[url]https://www.croatiaweek.com/the-story-of-croatian-canadian-boxing-legend-george-chuvalo/[/url]

 

Chuvalo was very overweight in his comeback fight against Felstein where he regained the Canadian title, but looked a little better in the two defences he made. He was supposed to defend against Trevor Berbick in 1979 but they couldn't come to terms and he ended up getting stripped of the title. Probably for the best.

 

I remember reading at the time that the fight didn't materialize because Chuvalo just didn't want to leave Toronto. I don't know where they were proposing the fight (I know Berbick was fighting out of Halifax at the time) but the holdup appeared to be venue and George just couldn't be bothered leaving the city.

 

Yes, that was the major sticking point - the best offers for the fight were from Halifax, which was Berbick's home ground. Though I think by the time the CPBF lost patience and took Chuvalo's title away they had come to doubt that he wanted to face Berbick at all.

 

It appears most of Chinvalos final fights were Canadian title fights. So there should be something there. Not sure if it was on TV but would no one film a national title fight?