Shavers was not the hardest puncher IMO, and nowhere near it. His so called "power" stemmed off of from quotes from fighters that were not knocked out by him. He has a surprisingly weak resume for someone who's considered to be "the hardest puncher ever". It might seem hard to deny him given so many quotes about him regarding his power, but think about it, the first and the most popular quote about him originated from a washed up, old and brain damaged Ali. Given his self promotive nature, Ali hyped up his win from Earnie in order to make his struggle in the fight look like a much bigger achievement than it really was by exaggerating Shavers' power. The next opponents Shavers fought (and lost to) said the same about him. Their quotes just like Ali's had the intention of boosting their own wins from Shavers given his false reputation as being an absurdly powerful puncher (which was fabricated by the still incredibly popular Ali). In other words, they hyped Shavers up just to boost their own wins. This is just my hypothetical explanation. What's your opinions ?
Just to be clear, all reporting suggests that Ali's brain damage was a motor problem. There is nothing in the medical to suggest that he was saying crazy things that weren't true because he had brain damage.
He was a powerful guy a lot of guys are it doesn't matter at a certain point they can all KO you. Earnie on one hand is one of a few guys I think has undeniable very exceptional power.
it's always been odd to me people will use these quotes ali larry and a couple others said earn hit the hardest so it means he is the hardest of all time they didnt fight lennox razor bruno or others and mutiple others so why do people say he hit the hardest like is it people stuck on quotes from legends that they think words matter more then in ring or do they think really nobody else hit harder when its proof on video it's been mutiple people who hit way harder ether way its crazy to think just cause a man hit the hardest in 1 era that it means he is a god and nobody ever can hit harder people have had better defense then ali and been better finishers just like in other areas we have better footwork and other stuff so what makes earnie so above being not the hardest hitter
A couple of them fought Tyson, although I don't know whether their quotes about Shavers came before or after their Tyson fights.
So from what I remember of the various threads on this, something like 7 or 8 contender level opponents said Earnie hit them the hardest. Some of them beat Earnie; some lost to him. Your alternative explanation is that Ali started the "Earnie is an incredible puncher" tradition to promote himself (plausible), and then 6 or 7 other guys latched onto that legend to glorify their own careers. Presumably, your theory is that the winners wanted to give themselves more credit, and the losers wanted an excuse for their losses. Now, one issue I see with this is that Earnie knocked down almost everybody he faced. He couldn't finish guys very well. But if you're talking knockdowns, he did that to pretty much everybody. Which is consistent with being a scary puncher. The bigger issue is that if you can't believe all those combined witnesses to Earnie's power, you probably shouldn't be taking boxers' words about anything else in their own careers, either. They have just as big an incentive to lie about the other stuff. So toss their biographies out unless the bios contain citations to government records or the like. Which is fine -- pro boxing is a dubiously trustworthy sport -- but it limits the history you can do.
Multiple people he beat also said he was the hardest puncher they faced so that presents a hole in your theory. Both winners and losers claimed shavers hit them the hardest. Even some of the guys who beat him had to scrape themselves off the canvas to win such as Lyle.
not a answer to my post mike is 1 man not the whole boxing era and future so tell me why cause that was a question and you ignored it
I already proved that wrong in my post that he didnt hit the hardest why did you skip over that and still use that outdated quotes from legends still why cause I already said why we shouldnt believe some words said in the 80s over in ring
So now Shavers gets to sit over in the "you didn't really hit that hard, ignore all the film of what your punches did to guys" corner with Tyson? Awesome. I guess George will be next to join them? I don't think you need quote by anyone to see that Shavers hit extremely hard. Just watch what happened when he landed flush. Watch how often it happened in round 1. As to the who hit harder than who, I think it's all academic once you have enough power to one-shot HWs. There's a video floating around on youtube of someone asking Holyfield this. He gave a great answer. It was basically "That's a bad question. I can't tell you who can hit the hardest, I can only tell you who hit me the hardest."
I disagree that your post disproved mine. I didn't find its arguments convincing. Many people claim that Tyson was the hardest puncher ever. Obviously, if Shavers hit harder than Tyson, that would be relevant to whether Shavers is the hardest puncher ever. Unless you're saying there's no way we can ever say whether a puncher from one era hit harder than another. In which case, OK, that might be right.
you dont find facts convincing your stuck on mike cause your saying he hit harder then Mike does hitting harder then mike mean hitting harder then every other boxer in history even though we have had multiple people like I said the first time hitting harder you have no proof other then outdated words which mean nothing years ago they didnt think anybody would ever move great as ali we seen mutiple move better with better defense
I dont think simple like that it's crazy I know it's people who specialized in certain punches who did it better then certain fighters and I do know people hit harder then others based on the style they fought to which people dont do for some odd reason meaning this style slugger hit harder then this slugger this boxer or outboxer or swammer hits harder then this boxer or swammer category is the way I like to work with thats the way I think claw is talking from that view which is right
I think this thread is asking about which fighter hits the hardest with whatever their best punches are. So it's comparing those specialists' best punches power to one another. Morrison's left hook vs Lewis's overhand vs Cooney's hook vs Foreman's clubbing swings vs Shavers's overhand, etc.
