CHUVALO OR BUST

Highs And Lows Of Boxing Legend's Life Found In Sculpture:
Artist

Much like the life of the man it so intricately depicts, Gabrielle
Fischer Horvath's bronze bust of legendary Canadian boxer George
Chuvalo is a mix of history, tragedy and artistry.

"His life is in the sculpture," Fischer Horvath said at the bust's
unveiling Monday at Bloor Street Boxing and Fitness. "His strength is
re-created in it, but it also symbolizes his tragic life; torn in
pieces and in shards."

In his 93 professional fights between 1956 and 1979, Chuvalo never
once touched the canvas, and spent 21 of his 23 years as a
professional boxer as the reigning Canadian heavyweight champion. But
the mettle of the fighter Muhammad Ali once described as "the toughest
man I ever fought," was put to its most difficult test only after
Chuvalo retired from the ring.

In what he has described as his own personal holocaust, Chuvalo has
lost three of his five children and his first wife to drugs. His grim
family history, he said, is what set in motion his crusade to make
young people aware of the pitfalls of drugs by offering up his sons as
an example.

"I don't sugar-coat anything for them," Chuvalo said of his Fight
Against Drugs speaking tour of high schools across the country. "I
talk to them about my sons (physical reaction) at the very sight of
heroin when in the throes of needing the drug so badly."

First there was his son Jesse, who became addicted to heroin in 1984
and was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot a year later. He was
20. Next came Georgie Lee, who, after a long battle with heroin and an
extended stint in jail for robbing a drugstore, died of a heroin
overdose four weeks after being released from prison in 1993. He was
30. Wife Lynn was found dead of a prescription drug overdose two days
after his funeral.

Then came Steven, 35, who has become a kind of centrepiece around
Chuvalo's anti-drug presentations.

"At the beginning of the talks I show a video and in it the kids see
Steven - and it looks like he's going to make it. He's a nice looking
boy, a very likeable guy and you believe what he says when he says
he's going to beat drugs," Chuvalo said. "Then the video ends and I
tell the kids Steven, too, died of a heroin overdose. You can hear an
audible gasp from the kids every time."

It's the shock of that reaction, Chuvalo said, that acts as a kind of
"preventative medicine" for kids who are most at risk.

"I never would have thought I would be doing this," he said, "but with
my family, I do it because I have to do it."

Chuvalo's tenacity both in and out of the ring is what made him an
attractive model for sculpting, Fischer Horvath said.

"Like him, bronze is lasting. Boxers don't stop till they drop down,"
she said, "but George is still going on strong and hasn't given up
despite the blows he's taken."

Fischer Horvath is currently trying to find an organization to either
auction off Chuvalo's bronze bust to raise funds for his Fight Against
Drugs organization, or one interested in purchasing Chuvalo's likeness
to use as a commemorative piece in a public location. For more
information, visit http://www.ghbronze.com.

For more information on Chuvalo's Fight Against Drugs, call
416-748-7737 or go to http://www.fightagainstdrugs.ca.