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Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 18 Jun 2015, 15:51
by Cap
Confirmed by Chuvalo. In the intros before the '65 Ali-Patterson fight, a smiling Sonny Liston is introduced and the TV commentator mentions Liston is scheduled to fight George Chuvalo. Funny that he would kill himself when he had a good payday coming.
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 18 Jun 2015, 17:02
by BoxBuzz
If Liston had anything left, Chuvalo would have been a great proving ground.
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 18 Jun 2015, 23:24
by dempseyfire
Cap wrote:Confirmed by Chuvalo. In the intros before the '65 Ali-Patterson fight, a smiling Sonny Liston is introduced and the TV commentator mentions Liston is scheduled to fight George Chuvalo. Funny that he would kill himself when he had a good payday coming.
? Huh ? Liston died in 1970 and he was probably murdered, not death by suicide.
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 19 Jun 2015, 03:04
by writehooks
I think Cap might be referring to the fact that prior to their fight Chuvalo and Patterson had each signed an agreement that the winner would challenge Ali for the title and the loser would meet Liston. George, however, turned down Jack Nilon's offer of $25,000 to fight Liston in the fall of '65 (there was talk of it being the semi-main to Patterson-Ali on Nov. 22 in Vegas), figuring it should be worth at least twice that amount. A few days before Christmas 1970, a Quebec promoter announced he'd signed both Chuvalo and Liston for a showdown at the Montreal Forum on Feb. 14, 1971, with George guaranteed $35,000 ... but Sonny's body was discovered at his Las Vegas home just a few days later. When I co-authored George's autobiography with him in 2012, he repeatedly stated the fight he most wanted and never got was Liston.
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 19 Jun 2015, 14:26
by Caractacus
Pardon me Mr. Writehooks,
I wanted to ask you if George Chuvalo has a libiray of all his recorded fights on film/video-tape?
Because not only would it be interested in seeing his bout against Dante Cane from November 1968
which was shown live on closed-circuit television from Toronto
on the benifit for Ben Anolik.
Also on the closed-circuit broadcast was Sonny Liston vrs Roger Risher(from Pitsburgh).
Or are these "Lost Fights"?
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 19 Jun 2015, 23:42
by writehooks
Hi Caractucus:
Sadly, other than his fights with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Patterson and Quarry, George has very little in the way of video from his career. He's particularly interested in finding CC footage of his 1971 bout with Cleveland Williams that shows his KD of Williams at the end of the 10th. He would also love to find a complete version of his 1968 demolition of Manuel Ramos. As far as George knows, there's no film of his entire bout against Cane ... just some HL. An interesting side note to that fight is that a newspaper copy of the UPI photo of George smashing Cane out of the ring is the one Rocky Balboa pulls out of his wallet to show Adrian during their first date (at the skating rink) in the first Rocky movie!
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 20 Jun 2015, 11:20
by evrenb
writehooks wrote:Hi Caractucus:
Sadly, other than his fights with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Patterson and Quarry, George has very little in the way of video from his career. He's particularly interested in finding CC footage of his 1971 bout with Cleveland Williams that shows his KD of Williams at the end of the 10th. He would also love to find a complete version of his 1968 demolition of Manuel Ramos. As far as George knows, there's no film of his entire bout against Cane ... just some HL. An interesting side note to that fight is that a newspaper copy of the UPI photo of George smashing Cane out of the ring is the one Rocky Balboa pulls out of his wallet to show Adrian during their first date (at the skating rink) in the first Rocky movie!
Does he not have Youtube??
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 10 Jul 2015, 21:25
by Cutman Scabbers
writehooks wrote:I think Cap might be referring to the fact that prior to their fight Chuvalo and Patterson had each signed an agreement that the winner would challenge Ali for the title and the loser would meet Liston. George, however, turned down Jack Nilon's offer of $25,000 to fight Liston in the fall of '65 (there was talk of it being the semi-main to Patterson-Ali on Nov. 22 in Vegas), figuring it should be worth at least twice that amount. A few days before Christmas 1970, a Quebec promoter announced he'd signed both Chuvalo and Liston for a showdown at the Montreal Forum on Feb. 14, 1971, with George guaranteed $35,000 ... but Sonny's body was discovered at his Las Vegas home just a few days later. When I co-authored George's autobiography with him in 2012, he repeatedly stated the fight he most wanted and never got was Liston.
"and the loser would meet Liston"
I can't think of more incentive to win than that -- what a great
consolation prize!
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 10 Jul 2015, 21:28
by Cutman Scabbers
writehooks wrote:Hi Caractucus:
Sadly, other than his fights with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Patterson and Quarry, George has very little in the way of video from his career. He's particularly interested in finding CC footage of his 1971 bout with Cleveland Williams that shows his KD of Williams at the end of the 10th. He would also love to find a complete version of his 1968 demolition of Manuel Ramos. As far as George knows, there's no film of his entire bout against Cane ... just some HL. An interesting side note to that fight is that a newspaper copy of the UPI photo of George smashing Cane out of the ring is the one Rocky Balboa pulls out of his wallet to show Adrian during their first date (at the skating rink) in the first Rocky movie!
Very cool point. Does anyone have an image of this?
"Dante Cane" sounds like a character from a Rocky movie (Union Cane??)
http://www.josportsinc.com/item_images/1331656921.jpg
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 11:30
by Caractacus
I wonder if his nickname was "The Inferno"?
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 11:42
by Caractacus
Here is a link to the photograph from his wallet that Rocky shows Adrian when they are at the skating rink.
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Fight:46844
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 12:06
by palooka
Wow! That looks a monster body puch (and a touch low).
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 12:15
by Caractacus
palooka wrote:
Wow! That looks a monster body puch (and a touch low).
What other kind of punch is gonna make you jump a foot off the canvas?
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 12:16
by palooka
Caractacus wrote:palooka wrote:
Wow! That looks a monster body puch (and a touch low).
What other kind of punch is gonna make you jump a foot off the canvas?
Good point though we could ask George Foreman, he made Joe Frazier hop.
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 14:55
by Caractacus
Did George Chuvalo and Spanish heavyweight Jose Urtain ever come close to a bout with one another?
It would have been a battle of the "Rock Men".
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 17:39
by Cutman Scabbers
Caractacus wrote:I wonder if his nickname was "The Inferno"?
or "Sugar"
Re: Sonny Liston and George Chuvalo
Posted: 11 Jul 2015, 17:40
by Cutman Scabbers