Who is the closest thing to being the George Chuvalo of MMA?

[Pierced7681]

Mark Hunt was the closest thing we had. We've never had a guy on par with Chuvalo though. Boxers of that era were extraordinary. Guy has to be the toughest guy to ever step in a ring or a cage.

Chris fuckin Lytle

 

[BisexualMMA]

George Chuvalo was a Heavyweight boxer with a ton of fights when Heavyweight boxing had some serious killers, and he was never KO'd. He only lost to prime George Foreman by corner stoppage and Joe Frazier by cut stoppage. He also had 2 decision losses to Muhammed Ali and a decision loss to Floyd Patterson. Not only did the guy never show signs of his chin cracking, he has his wits about him pretty good as an old man.

Who would you say MMA's closest equivalent to Chuvalo would be? For a while, guys like Big Nog and Hendo had never lost via strikes, but their careers lasted long enough to see them get stopped relatively easly.

Not only was he never KO'd...he was never knocked down once in his career.

And I'd say the closest thing would have been pre-Manhoef Mark Hunt.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Being mentioned as the toughest guy they ever fought by guys like Ali.

While Ali was at the hospital pissing blood after the fight, good Ol'George was dancing with his wife at the club

Ali vs Wepner gets credited as the inspiration for Rocky, but if you watch the Ali / Chuvalo fights, they look more like the first Apollo / Rocky fight to me.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Crazy to contrast Chuvalo with Jerry Quarry, the betting would have been that Chuvalo would have been the one to end up with problems. It wasn't like that at all.

Chuvalo must have a skull like a ram. No slurring, nothing.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Also, the only pro boxer ever to have his arm snapped by Jeff Goldblum.