George Chuvalo

Chuvalo was born on September 12, 1937, to Croat immigrants Stipan and Katica from Ljubuški in the Herzegovina region of what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina. Chuvalo became the Canadian amateur heavyweight champion in May 1955, defeating Winnipeg's Peter Piper with a first-round knockout (KO) in a tournament final in Regina, Saskatchewan. Chuvalo finished his amateur career with a 16–0 record, all by KO within four rounds. Nicknamed "Boom Boom", 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.[4]

George Chuvalo's rankings as a heavyweight were: number 9 in 1963, number 5 in 1964, number 3 in 1965, number 8 in 1966, number 4 in 1968 and number 7 in 1970.[5]

Chuvalo also appeared in films, with acting roles in I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978), Stone Cold Dead (1979), The Fly (1986), Last Man Standing (1987), Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1989), The Return of Eliot Ness (1991), Lee's Offering (2005) and Sicilian Vampire (2015).

His 1966 match against Ali was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.[10]

On August 14, 2008, Chuvalo's kitchen was the featured renovation project on the Canadian TV series Holmes on Homes in an episode titled "Kitchen Knockout".[11]

During April 2010, Chuvalo was a special guest at the BC Golden Gloves tournament held at the Eagle Ridge Community Centre in Langford, British Columbia.[12]

On December 17, 2011, he travelled to Sarajevo to attend the unveiling of a statue in his honor in Ljubuški on December 18, 2011.[13]

On May 11, 2019, the George Chuvalo Community Centre in Toronto, Ontario, opened which provide a variety of recreational programs for children as well as LGBTQ youth.[14]

When Chuvalo was 21, he married 15 year old Lynne, with whom he had five children: Mitchell, Steven, George Lee (George Jr.), Jesse, and Vanessa. 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.[15][16] The trio would often rob local pharmacies of prescription medication, for which they frequently served jail time.[15] In February 1985, Jesse committed suicide, and over the next two months, Steven would overdose on heroin 15 times.[15][16] In November 1993, less than a week after being released from prison for robbery, George Lee, who had survived a suicide attempt in prison and been threatening to intentionally overdose to reunite with Jesse, died of a heroin overdose.[15] Four days after George's death, Chuvalo's grief-stricken wife Lynne committed suicide on November 4.[17] In August 1996, despite recent attempts at improving his life, including nearing completion on a degree in Russian Literature from Queen's University, Steven was found dead of a heroin overdose.[15][18] Following his children's deaths, Chuvalo went into a deep depression and experienced suicidal thoughts.[15][19] By the time of Steven's death, Chuvalo had also found himself in financial distress; the mortage on his home had been foreclosed, and the contents of his house were being removed by creditors, although his economic situation improved over the following decades.[20] Chuvalo's son Mitchell would become a high school teacher, while Vanessa would become the department manager of a Toronto food market.[16][21] As of 2011, Chuvalo had six grandchildren.[22] On February 28, 2013, his granddaughter Rachel died of cancer.[23]

After Lynne's death, Chuvalo married his second wife, Joanne, in 1994, and adopted her two children: Jesse and Ruby.[24] Joanne, who had worked with Lynne, stopped by Chuvalo's house after her death to share condolences, which eventually led to a romance.[25] Since the mid-2010s, Joanne and Chuvalo's biological children from his first marriage have had several legal battles, largely led by a decline in Chuvalo's cognitive abilities which has led him to being incapable of leading many of his personal affairs.[19][24][25]

Chuvalo's cognitive abilities had taken a toll later in life, driven by blows he has received in his boxing career.[26] In 2018, a judge ruled that Chuvalo did not have the mental capacity to determine if he wished to reconcile with his wife, and by 2022, he was suffering from advanced dementia.[24][26] In 2022, Chuvalo tested positive for COVID-19, although made a recovery.[26]

Chuvalo is a Catholic.[19] In 1998, Chuvalo was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada and in 2005 received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. For his career success and anti-drug speaking campaigns, Chuvalo was awarded the key to the city of Toronto by mayor Rob Ford on March 26, 2013.[20][27]

• Chuvalo, George (November 2013). "Lost Boys". Toronto Life Magazine.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Chuvalo.

• Džordž (Jure) Čuvalo, najbolji kanadski bokser svih vremena: Nikad na kolenima – Tačno.net
• George Chuvalo's Official Fight Against Drugs Website
• Boxing record for George Chuvalo from BoxRec (registration required)
• CBC Digital Archives – Still Standing: The People's Champion George Chuvalo
• Historica.ca – Footprints – George Chuvalo
• Ian Palmer's TigerBoxing article on Chuvalo
• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia
• CBC Digital Archives. The Biggest Fight of George Chuvalo's Life
• George Chuvalo at IMDb
• George Chuvalo discography at Discogs