Canadian boxer George Chuvalo, who faced Muhammad Ali in his prime, dead at 89

George Chuvalo poses for a portrait in 2016 ahead of events commemorating his historic 1966 match facing Muhammad Ali. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)Social SharingGeorge Chuvalo, the iron-chinned Canadian heavyweight who took the best punches from the giants of boxing without ever falling, has died. He was 89.

Chuvalo suffered from dementia late in life and had been residing in a long-term care facility in Toronto. He died Saturday according to multiple online posts by family and friends.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said the boxer was a family friend, shared condolences on social media Saturday.

"My thoughts are with all of George's family and loved ones as we mourn his passing," he said.

Chuvalo went the distance with Muhammad Ali in bouts in Toronto and Vancouver, and absorbed the hardest shots sluggers Joe Frazier and George Foreman had to offer, without being knocked down.

It was unfathomable family tragedy after he retired that brought him to his knees.

"If you added up every punch I took and multiplied the total by 10,000, it wouldn't begin to equal the pain of losing three sons and a wife to drugs and suicide," he said in his 2013 autobiography Chuvalo: A Fighter's Life, co-written with Murray Greig.

The son of Croatian immigrants was born Sept. 12, 1937, in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood. He became intrigued by boxing after seeing The Ring magazine at a newsstand.

Chuvalo was 10 years old the first time he stepped through the ropes, and a growth spurt combined with an interest in weightlifting saw him develop into a six-foot, 210-pound fighter.

After a brief amateur career, he turned pro in 1956, winning notice for performances at the Jack Dempsey Tournament at Maple Leaf Gardens.

But by the early 1960s, Chuvalo's career had stagnated under ineffective guidance, until Toronto poultry magnate Irv Ungerman took over as his manager.

Chuvalo parlayed several wins into an attention-getting 11th-round stoppage over contender Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden in 1964. He returned to that mecca of boxing the next year, narrowly losing a decision to former champ Floyd Patterson in a bout The Ring named best of 1965.

Chuvalo's style was inexorable without being reckless. He moved forward with thudding blows from both hands to the head and body, producing stoppages in 88 per cent of his wins.

"You can't believe his strength," Canadian fighter Bill Drover once told a writer. "There's no way to stop him. He just keeps coming and coming. The only way you can stop him is with a stick of dynamite."

Chuvalo would always insist his defence was better than advertised, but it was his durability that was remarkable. He was able to absorb the shots, he said, thanks to a 17.5-inch neck strengthened through exercises. 

Chuvalo found himself fighting for the heavyweight title in 1966 as a replacement foe when Ali's affiliation with the Black Muslims and controversial anti-Vietnam-War stance made him a pariah in the U.S. 

The challenger's prospects were described in a New York Times headline: Bettor's-Eye View of Chuvalo: A Big Bum With a Lot of Heart.

George Chuvalo, left, and Muhammad Ali go head to head as they trade blows near the rope in the fourth round of their fight in Toronto on March 29, 1966. (The Associated Press)While Chuvalo failed to become Canada's first heavyweight champion since Tommy Burns in the early 1900s, he earned praise for a gritty performance. Ali famously called him the toughest man he had faced up to that point, but Chuvalo was ambivalent being the first to take the champ 15 rounds.

"In a crazy way, that fight is what defines me for a lot of my fellow Canadians but it took a long time before I came to appreciate how good it made me feel," he said. 

With wife Lynne and five children at home, Chuvalo appreciated the paydays the Ali performance begat. He would beat contenders Jerry Quarry and Manuel Ramos, losing close bouts to Oscar Bonavena and Jimmy Ellis. 

Chuvalo was stopped for the first time in 1967 by Frazier, requiring a silicone implant to keep an eyeball from drooping. The loss to Foreman in the fourth round three years later was also notable, with the referee stepping in before Chuvalo's "never knocked down" streak might have been ended.

Chuvalo's loss to Ali in Vancouver in 1972 was not as compelling or as close as the first bout. He retired for good on a winning note six years later, finishing with a record of 73 wins, 18 losses and two draws, with 64 of his wins coming by knock out.

Unlike with Ali and others, the toll of concussive blows wasn't evident on the surface. Chuvalo was articulate and spoke in rapid-fire bursts, with a quip or self-deprecating joke usually at the ready. 

But like many fighters, he had a tough time transitioning to the "humdrum" nature of life, as he once described it. At various points, he opened a nightclub, got his real estate licence, promoted fights, hosted a TV show and took cinema's worst ever arm-wrestling defeat in a cameo in David Cronenberg's The Fly.

Chuvalo told CBC Radio in 1968 he didn't want his four sons boxing for a living, but it was outside the ring where he couldn't protect them. The youngest, Jesse, became hooked on heroin after a prescription for pain medication ran out and was just 19 when he fatally shot himself in 1985.

Older brothers George Jr. and Steven had by then also become users of the drug and involved in petty crime to feed their habits. Steven Chuvalo described a feeling of "worthlessness" he and his two addicted brothers felt in an interview with CBC's the fifth estate in 1995.

"My dad spent quite a few years chasing us around the city, Georgie and I in particular, and dragging us out of drug houses and heroin houses and basically just trying to keep us alive," he said.

George Jr., three days sprung from jail in Kingston, Ont., overdosed on Halloween 1993.

Just four days after that, 49-year-old Lynne Chuvalo swallowed pills and left a suicide note.

"I never thought she'd do it, but I'm not surprised," Chuvalo told the New York Times a short time later, adding his wife never got over the first burial of a child.

Steven Chuvalo, who spoke on the fifth estate of wanting to make his father proud, would overdose and die eight months after that program aired.

Chuvalo would persevere, marrying again, and cherishing time spent with oldest son Mitch, daughter Vanessa, and his grandchildren. He would travel the country, speaking bluntly to students, as captured in a CBC Radio report in 1998.

"I'd like to think if you're ever tempted with the idea of doing drugs, or you ever flirt with doing drugs, I hope you think of me, George Chuvalo, and what drugs did to my family."

In 2017, reports surfaced of family drama involving Chuvalo's surviving children and the fighter's second wife, Joanne, who he was divorcing. Some of the disputes centred around the state of Chuvalo's cognitive decline and his future care.

On a podcast five years later, Mitch Chuvalo said his father no longer recognized him when he visited.

By that time, his legacy had been recognized by the City of Toronto, with the official opening in 2019 of the 7,000-square foot George Chuvalo Community Centre, located in the Junction.

Chris Iorfida, based in Toronto, has been with CBC since 2002 and written on subjects as diverse as politics, business, health, sports, arts and entertainment, science and technology.