Thread: Chuvalo vs Foreman, the punch vs the chin

@EL DINAMITA

Yeah look I rewatched the famous 3rd round of this fight.

My opinion is that yeah, Geroge did expend a lot of energy and did have gas issues at about the mid-way point. Personally though I think Chuvalo was getting way badly banged up to mount a proper comeback after that even if he made it out of the round. Foreman still had enough left, especially after a rest given that Chuvalo could even have sustained verticality for the remainder of round 3, to resume his destruction and complete it before he ran out of steam. I doubt by then Chuvalo could even have capitalised on it enough, his own punches never really hurt Foreman at all.

Chuvalo IS a piece of iron, there is no doubt about that, and Foreman IS a big puncher by even todays standards too. But I also don't think Foreman had the same kind of power as Wladimir in those vicious hooks or a Stiverne etc. I doubt Chuvalo could have survived even a quarter as many fights in modern times without being knocked down or out.

This is not to rip on his chin at all, all I am saying is that his chin is simply not tested fully against modern HW punchers as some of the other candidates are.

The thing I noticed about Foremans big hooks he throws is that yeah, he puts a lot of his weight into them and they are well formed but they are still largely arm punches, often ungrounded and so freakin slow! I've never seen Foreman put anybody out cold with single shot power of any relevance.

Even glass jawed Frazier got up 5 times.

Chuvalo still remains as an iron man but I personally doubt he would have come back and beat George Foreman here. If only he stopped trying to fight him and rope-a-doped for a few rounds first until Foreman tired out he might have been the first to expose the big fella.

Chuvalo's chin was unbreakable, I think it was a bad stoppage and I think Chuvalo would have stopped him in the next round!

Chuvalo is the best