Description
Muhammad Ali was scheduled to fight the WBA Champion Ernie Terrell on March 29th 1966, in Chicago Illinois. Six weeks before the fight, Ali’s draft classification was changed from 1-Y to 1-A, making him eligible to be drafted into the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali said, ‘I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.’ On February 25th, he was called before the Illinois State Athletic Commission to apologise for his remark, but he refused. Immediately afterwards, Illinois State Attorney General William G. Clark declared the fight illegal.
This was the first fight Bob Arum promoted and now it’s been declared illegal, he could not believe the bad luck he was hit with. Arum didn’t give up, he tried other States to hold the fight but the bad luck continued. He then took the fight to Canada which was scheduled for March 29th 1966, at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario. Arum was then hit with more bad luck when Ernie Terrell pulled out of the fight, but Arum’s luck changed after a phone call to Canadian’s George Chuvalo, asking him if he’d like to get in the ring and fight “The Champ” for the World Heavyweight Championship. Chuvalo knowing he had only seventeen days’ notice to prepare himself not just for a world title fight, but to fight Ali, which by modern standards would almost be an impossible task not just physically but mentally. Chuvalo’s attitude was, ‘opportunity knocked and I’ll answer,’ so he agreed.
Ali’s camp knew Chuvalo would be a handful but had no idea he was about to meet his toughest opponent to date and have one of his all-time hardest fights. From the opening bell, Chuvalo came on strong catching Ali with a few hard punches but Ali out boxed him firing in his lightning fast jabs, right crosses and following up with the occasional left hook but whatever Ali threw, Chuvalo just shook it off and kept coming forward throwing his bombs to Ali’s body. Over the next few rounds Ali constantly caught Chuvalo with his fast jabs and combinations while Chuvalo kept going for Ali’s body trying to wear him down. At the end of the 4th round, Chuvalo’s left side of his forehead began to get marked up. In the following round, Ali was dancing making Chuvalo miss with his jabs and countering with combinations. Towards the end of the round Chuvalo caught Ali with a hard-left hook but Ali danced to the center of the ring and picked Chuvalo off with his jabs.
Round 6 – Ali continued to pummel Chuvalo with his hard-left jabs, there was a slight swelling around the left eye but Chuvalo was strong as a bull and kept coming forward punching Ali to the body. He trapped Ali on the ropes and let loose a barrage of hard body blows. Ali took to his toes and danced out to the center of the ring and retaliated with combinations of his own. In the later rounds it was obvious Chuvalo wasn’t going to win on points, he had to deliver a knockout blow and he was hunting for it.
Round 13 – Ali threw punches from all angles cutting Chuvalo under his right eye, but Chuvalo kept moving forwards throwing hooks to the body. Ali was on his toes dancing and kept throwing his fast combinations of jabs, rights hands, left hooks and uppercuts. In the following round Chuvalo piled on the pressure wildly attacking Ali. The radio commentator Don Dunphy said, ‘wild as a night in the Yukon.’ Chuvalo was giving everything he but Ali retaliated with punishing blows.
Round 15 – Chuvalo threw everything he had in his arson and so did while Ali. This was a fast pace heavyweight fight with non-stop action from start to finish with both fighters delivering punishing blows. Ali beat Chuvalo on a 15 rounds unanimous points decision. This was the first time Ali went the full 15 rounds.
After the fight Ali said, ‘he’s the toughest guy I ever fought.’
