1. George Chuvalo is known for having never been knocked down in his 93 bout professional career including fights against Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman.
19 Facts About George Chuvalo
1. 2.
George Chuvalo was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
3.
George Chuvalo was born on September 12,1937, to Croat immigrants Stipan and Katica from Ljubuski in the Herzegovina region of what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina.
4.
George Chuvalo became the Canadian amateur heavyweight champion in May 1955, defeating Winnipeg's Peter Piper with a first-round knockout in a tournament final in Regina, Saskatchewan.
5.
Originally nicknamed "Boom Boom", George Chuvalo turned professional in 1956, knocking out four opponents in one night to win a heavyweight tournament held by former world champion Jack Dempsey at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on April 26,1956.
6.
George Chuvalo is best known for his two fights against Muhammad Ali.
7.
George Chuvalo went the distance both times, in each case, losing the decision by a wide margin on the scorecards.
8.
In both cases the referee stopped the fight while George Chuvalo was still on his feet.
9.
George Chuvalo was disqualified in 1961 against Joe Erskine.
10.
George Chuvalo holds the distinction of never being knocked down in his 93 professional bouts.
11.
George Chuvalo appeared in films, with acting roles in I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses, Stone Cold Dead, The Fly, Last Man Standing, Prom Night III: The Last Kiss, The Return of Eliot Ness, Lee's Offering and Sicilian Vampire.
12.
When George Chuvalo was 21, he married 15 year old Lynne, with whom he had five children.
13.
Three of Chuvalo's sons, Jesse, Steven, and George Lee, were heroin addicts, which was introduced to the family by Jesse in 1984 after a severe motorbike accident led him to seek pain relief.
14.
George Chuvalo's son Mitchell is a high school teacher, while daughter Vanessa manages a food market.
15.
Three months after Lynne's death, George Chuvalo married his second wife, Joanne O'Hara, 20 years his junior, in January 1994.
16.
George Chuvalo already had two children from two previous relationships.
17.
George Chuvalo's life, including the blows he had received in his boxing career, had taken a toll on his cognitive abilities.
18.
In 2018, a judge ruled that George Chuvalo did not have the mental capacity to determine if he wished to reconcile with his wife after living apart for multiple years, and by 2022, he was suffering from advanced dementia.
19.
In 1998, George Chuvalo was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada and in 2005 received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.