George Chuvalo, five-time Canadian heavyweight boxing champion, has died

OBITUARY George Chuvalo, five-time Canadian heavyweight boxing champion, has died BRAD WHEELER PUBLISHED 7 MINUTES AGO COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER 1/9 George Chuvalo and heavyweight champion Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) compete in a title fight at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, on March 29, 1966. Clay won the match to retain his title. BORIS SPREMO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo speaks during a ceremony at city hall in Toronto, in 2013, where then-mayor Rob Ford presented him with a key to the city. PETER POWER/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo works out on a punching bag at Lansdowne Athletic Club, in Toronto, in 1971. JOHN WOOD/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo and Ernie Terrell fight at Maple Leaf Gardens, in Toronto, in November, 1965. BORIS SPREMO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo with his family, in December, 1976. DENNIS ROBINSON/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo poses for a photo in 2011. MOE DOIRON/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo and Ali fight in 1966. BORIS SPREMO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL BORIS SPREMO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL Chuvalo with his son after his fight against Ali in 1966. BORIS SPREMO/THE GLOBE AND MAIL George Chuvalo, the charismatic five-time Canadian heavyweight boxing champion who went the distance with Muhammad Ali twice and who was never knocked off his feet in 93 professional fights, died on Saturday, his 89th birthday. The beefy, iron-jawed son of Croatian immigrants is generally acknowledged as one of the toughest men to have ever entered the squared circle. He spent his last years in Toronto suffering from dementia after a career of head blows absorbed at the hands of some of the sport’s hardest punchers, among them knockout specialist George Foreman and Joe Frazier, who partly dislodged Mr. Chuvalo’s right eyeball from its socket at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1967. To the world, Mr. Chuvalo represented the quintessential hard-rock, indefatigable Canadian pugilist. “You were a tough guy,” said boxing trainer and television personality Russ Anber. “You weren’t necessarily going to win, but you were going to hang in there with anybody in the world and you were going to give fans their money’s worth. George was that fighter.” The bull-necked Torontonian inflicted and endured pain inside the ring while experiencing profound tragedy outside it. Once the father of five children, he lost one son and his first wife, Lynne Chuvalo, to suicide. Two more sons died of heroin overdoses. “It was tough watching him go through those losses,” said Charles…