17 years old, I had just begun training and I saw a legend walk in the doorway. There was George Chuvalo, the Champ, standing in my gym. This man had stood toe to toe with 93 opponents and beat 73 of them. He fought Muhammad Ali and lasted all 15 rounds. He went dancing with his wife afterwards and Ali went to the hospital. Anyway, I had lost total focus and started staring over where he was standing. He sat down at the shake bar and started drinking a protein shake. When this man grabbed the plastic cup with his colossal hands, I thought the cup had disappeared. I finished off my workout and I did something I never do, I asked for his autograph in my training log. He wrote “Hard work pays off – George Chuvalo.”
It has been almost 10 years since that day and it has been almost 10 years that I have had that page in my training book photocopied and plastered on my wall, right beside my Schwarzenegger poster. George comes in every once in a while, gets a workout in and I see him still fighting through every workout, just like all of us iron freaks. George still throws around some impressive poundage and he does it with ease. He’s still standing and he’s still an inspiration.
Rarely does one get the opportunity to sit down and talk with a boxing legend like George. I had the opportunity to do that. We covered everything from his fight with Ali to his fight against drugs to his iron will that keeps him in the gym to this day. This is our conversation:
JEFF: George, I want to thank you for sitting down with me today. Just to start off, I wanted to speak a little bit about your charity, George Chuvalo’s Fight Against Drugs. What kind of work does your charity do and if people want to donate, how can they do so?
GEORGE: Thanks, Jeff. What we do is talk to kids about staying away from drugs and staying out of jail. I mostly speak to kids at schools, sports teams or in other venues. I just got back from a Metis First Nation’s reserve in Northern Saskatchewan and I spoke to the kids out there about staying away from drugs and the first hand tragedies my family and I have experienced. I’m proud that we have done over 1400 presentations in about 15 years all over North America.
JEFF: That is remarkable. If people want to donate to your charity or book you for a speaking event, how would one go about it?
GEORGE: You can always donate or contact me through the website www.fightagainstdrugs.ca or you can contact Jesse O’Hara at [email protected] and can call him at 1-888-575-7431.
JEFF: How did you first get interested in boxing and working out?
GEORGE: I remember, I was about 6 or 7 and I walked into Morgan’s Cigar Store in Toronto around Keele and Dundas. I was just a little kid and I was looking at the magazines and I saw these muscle guys throwing punches. Right then, I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to look like. I went home and I told my mom, she laughed at me.
JEFF: When did you finally get your first pair of boxing gloves?
GEORGE: When I turned 9 years old, she bought me a pair of boxing gloves. I remember they were beige, heavy things.
JEFF: Where’d you first start training with those gloves?
GEORGE: My buddy’s and I went over to Macaroni Field. We called it that because it was this field right beside a macaroni factory. We would go over there and mess around fighting. I was competitive even then, so I would look on the Wheaties boxes for sport tips. They had all kinds of sports tips, hockey, basketball, baseball, boxing, everything really. I’ll never forget Joe Louis’ boxing tip. It was ‘Jab to the body, fake a jab, that’ll bring your opponent’s arm down and then hook to the head.’ I used it a lot with the guys in Macaroni Field.
JEFF: Where did you start to train after Macaroni Field?
GEORGE: When I got serious, I started to train with an older pro in the basement of a Catholic Church. What was funny was, the guy’s name was Mickie McDonald. At the time, there was a notorious bank robber on the loose that had the same name. When I told my mom about him, she thought he was the bank robber. Obviously, he wasn’t.
JEFF: When was your first fight and what were you thinking when you first stepped in the ring?
GEORGE: I was 10 years old and I weighed about 85 pounds. We fought right down by the lake, close to Ontario Place in Toronto. The Second World War had just finished and there was a ton of army guys around. It was just an exhibition and it was 3 rounds. I remember seeing my parents and my Uncle Sam and Aunt Sophie. There was smoke in the air and my gloves were oversized and heavy. I was so wide-eyed and excited, it was wonderful, I’ll never forget it.
JEFF: As you got older and you started working out, what kinds of exercises did you do?
GEORGE: I did a lot of push-ups. I was about 12 years old and I could only do 4 push-ups in a row. I figured out that if I put two chairs under my hands and a chair under my feet when doing push-ups, I could get a better stretch. Eventually, I got obsessed with doing push-ups, I would do them all the time. I remember I used to do them in the middle of the night in my family’s sunroom. I’d start getting so loud from the breathing and moving around that I’d wake my whole family up. My mom would come into the sunroom and she would yell at me to go to bed. I was so fanatical about push-ups that I eventually after 9 months I was doing 400 in a row.
JEFF: Eventually, as you got more serious and start competing in your late teens and early twenties, what kinds of food did you use in your diet?
GEORGE: I didn’t eat any junk, maybe a little ice cream once in a while but just barely. I ate a lot of meat, fish, chicken and salads. I drank a lot of tea with lemon and honey, it was considered a fighter’s drink. I never drank any milk, it has Casein in it. Casein makes phlegm and it can screw with your breathing.
JEFF: Did you guys ever take any supplements?
GEORGE: No, not really. Nothing was really around then. There was no market for it like there is now. I used to take Vitamin E and C, but that was really it. My trainer was taking Geritol, but that was for old guys. I never tried it.
JEFF: What about now?
GEORGE: Today, I take everything. My joints hurt and I take things for that. I take whey protein and lots of stuff. We’re really lucky to have the availability of supplements we do today.
JEFF: Personally, I couldn’t live without my supplements. George, your professional boxing record is 93 fights- 73 wins- 18 losses-2 draws, you had 64 knockouts. In 1966, when you were stepping into the ring to fight Muhammad Ali, what were you feeling?
GEORGE: I was nervous, anything can happen in that ring. Everyone I ever fought was good. I fought some of the biggest names in boxing and they were all good opponents. I knocked out a lot of them, like you said, 64 knockouts. I was always nervous stepping in the ring though. I think it was a good thing.
JEFF: What were you thinking in the 15th round against Ali when you had him up against the ropes? You smacked him in the jaw with 4 left hands and then followed up with a monster right; did you think you might have him going down?
GEORGE: Jeff, have you ever been in a street fight?
JEFF: Yes.
GEORGE: What were you thinking?
JEFF: Not a whole lot, just acting.
GEORGE: Exactly, when I was in the ring, I wasn’t thinking much. It wasn’t like I was thinking, okay I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that. All my training and hard work in the gym was takes over in the ring. When I was bombing him, I was just following instinct. I knew that I had to stay close, I wasn’t as tall as him and I didn’t have the reach he had. I knew I had to stay inside. Other than that, it was all instinct and second nature thinking.
JEFF: Is it true that you went out dancing after the fight?
GEORGE: Yeah, that’s true. My wife and I went out dancing, had a great time. Ali went to the hospital and had bleeding kidneys for 3 ½ weeks, he was pissing blood. Ali was one hell of a talented fighter and we were in a tough business. You had to stand for 59 minutes, throwing punches and getting hit from start to finish. It’s a really tough business.
JEFF: If you had one piece of advice to give any young boxers, fighters or other athletes coming up, what would it be?
GEORGE: If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be that hard work pays off. The last thing you want is to get caught out of shape in the ring because you didn’t work hard enough. It’s dangerous; they reduced the rounds in boxing to 12 rounds from 15 because guys weren’t coming in shape to last the 15 rounds and were getting hurt or dying. They were tired and it is easy to get hurt if you are tired, you can’t deal with the punches as well. When you are tired, the punches land flush and hit you with 100% power. When you still have gas in the tank, you can dodge and weave out of the way or deal with the punches so you aren’t getting hit with 100%, more like 60% or 40%. You gotta have steam left though. Since they made it 12 rounds, guys aren’t dying as much but they still gotta come in shape. The only way to come in shape is if you put the hard work in before the fight.
JEFF: Are you still hitting the heavy bag and doing any boxing?
GEORGE: My shoulder is really bad, so I haven’t been doing any boxing for years.
JEFF: George, I’ve seen you in the gym working like an animal. How do you keep yourself going to the gym after all these years, what is your motivation?
GEORGE: I keep going because it keeps me looking good, feeling good and keeps me healthy. It sharpens me mentally and makes me feel more alive. There’s nothing like getting a brutal workout in and then going and taking a hot shower, I just feel alive. If I take a week off, I find I start feeling more sluggish, you know? My mind starts dulling, I just don’t feel right without working out. It also helps with maintaining my strength and bone density as I get older. I like to get a good workout in at least 3-4 times a week, I find if I don’t, I just don’t feel right.
JEFF: I heard that you have a book coming out soon?
GEORGE: Yeah, I’m working on it now. It should be coming out in about a year or so. I haven’t figured out a title yet.
JEFF: George, before we finish up, I have one more question for you. I don’t know if you remember this or not, but when I was about 17, you were in Fitness 365 in Toronto and I came up to you and I asked you if you could sign my training notebook. I still have that notebook and I photocopied the original and put it up on my walls. I look at it everyday. You wrote, hard work pays off, how has hard work paid off for you?
GEORGE: Well, if I hadn’t worked as hard as I did, I would have never been a contender and achieved the rankings I did. You don’t get to elite levels of any sport without working hard. It’s just a fact. Sugar Ray, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, none of them would have gotten to where they were without having worked as hard as they did. They all had raw talent, but it was because of the hard work they put in, combined with their talent, that they achieved what they did. Ali was one of the hardest workers around and he was talented, that’s why he accomplished what he did. He didn’t just coast on pure talent. One of the worst things is fighting and knowing you didn’t work as hard as you could have. You start getting tired in the last few rounds and you are in for it then. Momma mia, that’s a bad place to find yourself. It could be any sport, if you aren’t in shape and you didn’t work hard enough, you’re gonna be in a bad place. In combat sports, that kind of mistake can be deadly.
You gotta be in shape. You gotta work hard, get your rest, diet intelligently and get all the nutrients, protein, healthy fats that you need. There are lots of supplements out there, you need to take the right ones. Champs work hard, diet properly and get their rest. Champs don’t drink, do drugs and smoke. You’ll never succeed doing things like that. It’s common sense. There will always be someone behind you, breathing down your neck trying to take your spot. If you aren’t doing your duties, that guy that is coming for your spot might get it because he is hungry and he is doing everything he can. You have to work hard.
At this point, I thanked George and we wrapped up the interview. George is a symbol for what hard work and dedication can get you. His accomplishments and the tragedies that he faced in his personal life show that he is not only a physically strong man but a mentally strong man too. George faced immense tragedy in 1985 when he lost his son Jesse to suicide. His son was addicted to heroin. Life wasn’t done testing George. His other son, George Lee, died of a heroin overdose in 1993. His wife, Lynne, committed suicide 4 days later in George Lee’s bed. 1996 came around and George was still standing, it was then that his only remaining son, Steve, was lost to heroin. George fought through it all.
Remember, hard work pays off. That hour of cardio you have to do to burn that last bit of fat matters, weighing your food matters, not cheating on your diet matters. Hard work pays off and if you want to win, you have to work hard and you have to fight hard. Take it from George.
If you have someone that is remarkable that you would like profiled or if you have any ideas, comments or questions, you can forward them to me at [email protected] .
