ali insinuated clearly on this video that tyson did hit harder than shavers

Larry Holmes and Quick Tillis were the only common opponents of Shavers and Tyson. Both, especially Tillis, made it clear that Shavers was the harder puncher.

While talking about Tyson, Quick brings up how Earnie was the baddest man he ever fought entirely on his own initiative, praising Shavers as the biggest hitter he took on at 2:38 with some classic lines in this radio interview:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXxnmaX4FAo[/url]

All six common opponents of Foreman and Shavers, Charley Polite, Leroy Caldwell (who said Earnie hit harder than Foreman and Lyle put together, and that Lyle and Foreman had about equal power to each other), Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Young, agreed that Shavers was the hardest puncher they were hit by. (Lyle said, "He hit me and the floor came up!," on camera.)

Jimmy Ellis claimed he wasn't impressed with Earnie's power, but it seems apparent on the film that Jimmy never knew what hit him. Jerry Quarry claimed immediately after stopping Shavers in one that Earnie never hit him, and only discovered Shavers did nail him when Jerry saw the videotape the next day. (Earnie has confirmed that he hit JQ pretty solidly. For his part, Jerry seemed to rate Mac Foster as the hardest puncher he remembered getting hit by.)

Shavers has indicated that his knockdown of Holmes in their rematch may have been the hardest punch he ever landed. There's no question that Earnie hit Tillis much, MUCH harder than Tyson. Mike scored a flash knockdown on Quick. Earnie dropped James with a face plant for a nine count with the sort of decking one stays down from 99 out of 100 times. (The amazing way Tillis suddenly got back up is a story in itself.)

Because of Holmes and Tillis especially, there's nothing to suggest Tyson came near hitting as hard as Shavers, and I doubt Mike believes it himself. (Tyson's very friendly and approachable with fans, so he'd be easy enough to ask his thoughts on having his power compared with Earnie's. Foreman has been friends with Shavers, and seems satisfied Earnie was definitely a harder puncher, although George was much stronger physically with much better punch resistance.)

 

oh god its heavy_hands/Consta/Foreman_HooK!!!

I remember that broken english from anywhere! :rofl

 

We all know who this is. Shave the fur off a striped or spotted animal from the jungle and you get striped or spotted skin underneath. As was pointed out by Shakespeare, the different user names don't change the person behind them.

 

Anyhow, Yeah, can't believe we are talking about this Again in 2016 Consta, but here we go.

Tyson may or may not have hit harder than Shavers. We don't know. I don't think it's necessarily true or that Shavers' power was overrated. I disagree with that.

The main thing is that Tyson was a better finisher, with quicker hands and better accuracy. He was just more dynamic, and a special fighter. When he hurt guys he didn't fùck around and get sloppy like Shavers did.

That's the difference. It doesn't really mean that he is for sure a harder hitter than Shavers. Jimmy Young was in the ring with both (Sparred with Tyson as an old man) and he stated that Shavers hit harder.

 

Great post!!!

 

Heaven forbid anyone rate Shavers power higher than your mancrush Foreman.

The fact is Shavers was a noticably inferior fighter to Foreman (and even more so Tyson) which has to be factored in. Shavers is easily the consensus hardest hitter of his era. If he had Foreman's chin he would have been twice the fighter and add a bit of stamina and he'd probably have beat some greats.

Shavers hit harder than Tyson. He didn't hit as fast, or as effectively but he hit harder. He also hit harder than Foreman one would think, which is incredible in itself.

 

Part of the reason he could tire easily was because his arms were described as being like a pair of 50 pound clubs, but his stamina wasn't all that bad.

Chuck Leslie, Rochelle Norris and Tiger Williams gave him a trio of tenth round knockouts, he boxed his way to a decision with a bruised right hand in Paris to take Henry Clark I (a bewildered Larry Merchant's television broadcasting debut with Tim Ryan on CBS), dropped Holmes in round seven of their rematch, flattened Tillis in round nine, and took round 14 from Ali on all three cards.

Foreman did not produce any knockdowns beyond round five until his comeback in the late 1980's. Shavers retained knockout power through the entirety of a match.

Head to head, that's not to suggest Earnie would have beaten George. Shavers couldn't overcome the lighter hitting but much physically stronger Tex Cobb. I think Foreman would have shoved Earnie backwards to try taking away his power, then brutalize Shavers with his own power for a stoppage win before five rounds could ever be completed, maybe less. It normally took a lot of punches to bring Earnie down, but it was also hard for Shavers to recover once hurt.

While Earnie's power is actually being suggested as underrated by some though, I wanted to mention that he didn't lose that power in the later rounds like others, even though Jerry Quarry correctly described him as a front runner. (It was actually in the semifinal to Berbick-Ali that Earnie came off the floor against Jeff Sims for the definitive comeback win of his career. Jeff dropped him with a single right in round one, not a sustained attack, and Shavers was able to come back to stop him a few rounds later.)

Earnie was 211 at age 50 for Brian Yates, but although he was at his prime weight, his body tone was gone, and his physique was certainly that of a man his age. Even though his power was also missing, he was actually winning until Yates suddenly cut loose with three chopping rights to the temple to drop Shavers for the count.

Tommy Hearns is an example of somebody who was widely reported by opponents to diminish badly in power and potency after single digit rounds. It could also be an issue for Marvin Johnson, who trained very hard and was always in the best of shape. Yet, while his stamina was fine when he didn't have significant resistance (as with the weight drained Victor Galindez) he had serious trouble with strong opponents possessed with staying power.

 

I always like that J. Quarry - Shavers fight when everyone knew someone is going to go. If you patch all the films together, you find Ali, Foreman, Frazier, (plus Don King is Shavers' manager) are all in the crowd...what a cast of characters.

Shavers hits Quarry very hard....and you hear Gil Clancy say "Careful Jerry careful", then Quarry wades back in... and hits Shavers with a punch that is hard to see...and Shavers wobbles.. (Patterson comments..."Shavers is hurt"), and then Quarry just starts throwing non-stop heavy stuff on Shavers to get the fight stopped. Quarry at his best in a close quarter dog-fight.

 

James Tillis said Shavers hit harder than Tyson. (fought them both)
Larry Holmes said Shavers hit harder than Tyson. (fought them both)

Ron Lyle said Shavers hit harder than Foreman.

 

You can think that without having to think Shavers power was a myth. Because he was definitely a big hitter.

 

You're right, I found him saying it too

[url]https://youtu.be/cXxnmaX4FAo?t=2m23s[/url]