Earnie Shavers' Power Quotes- An Explanation

Time to log onto Ancestry.com and send out surveys.

 

Yes Ali used that catch phrase many times. But considering the sheer number of impressive hitters he faced, and that he had no hesitation in giving his answer, says a lot.

It stands out even more given that every other known boxer in that decade said the same thing and never picked anyone over shavers.

 

Yeah, Ali's kinfolk back in Africa took a lot of punishment in the 70s.

 

It would take exactly nine of the hardest punches of all time to knock Ali down in the Shavers fight. Ali only absorbed 8. So the fight proves nothing.

 

Just one thing I would say, is that, imho, Earnie’s overall skill and technique (in so far as getting his big punches home) is being somewhat underrated. No, he wasn’t always on point but it was often more particularly so when he began to gas and that being after his landing some very decent punches in proximity prior to his gassing.

The Quarry fight was strange. No discredit to Jerry but it was as if Shavers took absolutely no conditioning into the ring with him which can impact overall resilience. As if he was literally looking toward a 1-2 rd fight for better or worse with Quarry getting to him first and I’m reaction, Earnie appearing awfully weak under a few hard shots.

Compare that to the way a much fitter Earnie jumped on Norton. Fast, tight, powerful and accurate punches. True, it was short, but certainly not a display of an unwieldy puncher with only power to go. I thought the Clark TKO was another excellent performance, executions well upheld by Earnie aside from the obvious power of his punch.

Also, v Lyle, could any greater skill or finesse have allowed Earnie to lay more power shots on Ron than the number he actually did land? What a war that fight was.

As to his appearance, i thought Shavers looked great, very much in line with the real threat that he posed. I recall an article suggesting that Earnie looked like a Mongol Warrior ready to go. I thought that description was very apt and could’ve been nicely inserted between his first and last name.

 

Yeah, even between fights they must’ve been awfully nervous and stressed out in anticipation of the next time they were going to be “shook”. Like an earthquake you don’t see coming - until Ali tells you it already hit. I believe they all walked around often wearing headgear just in case.

 

Another excellent observational foray Pugguy.
I am glad you posted this because I never saw this whole long, grueling fight lol!
Great to see the good-natured exchanges between all the HW champs before the fight.

But I do not see indication that Shavers lacked conditioning.
Either in his appearance or from the result of the fight.
Guys can get caught quickly & never recover, & Shavers did not have a cast-iron chin.
He was actually boxing well, but Quarry could stop massive punchers (they commented on the Lyle & the Foster who were undefeated before Jerry got to him), & at HW this easily can happen.

What evidence of deficient fitness do you see? It is s just the result, that is really not isolating the cause properly.

 

Anthropologists working in the region recorded stories of the "Punches From Nowhere Sickness," but dismissed it as mass hysteria.

 

Williams isn't a good example because he was almost entirely untested against elite competition. He didn't really fight other punchers who proved their power against the elite so Shavers has nothing in the way of competition.
Bugner was a cuts stoppage so not terribly relevant in terms of concussive power and the Young stoppage was early in his career when he was green and inexperienced. I don't know if that version of Young is comparable to the one who later in his career proved to be durable. In the rematch Shavers wasn't able to stop a more experienced version.

Cooney is a good example though because in terms of how people reacted to his shots he easily seems on par with Shavers. The reaction of guys to being blasted by Cooney if anything is even more dramatic than when Shavers hits people.

 

Well it is the longest 2 min 20 sec fight you’ll ever see. As such, I rarely have the time to go back and review it myself. I also covered myself with “as if” and qualified lack of conditioning as having an impact on Earnie’s resilience to a punch.​

More seriously, while I appreciate and understand the quality of Quarry’s punch I didn’t necessarily see the devastating nature of the punches he laid on Earnie though they were good and he landed a bunch so I’m perhaps short falling Jerry on the steam behind his punches on this occasion. Certainly Jerry put Earnie out like nobody did, before or since.

Earnie’s chin might’ve not have been great
but for several other of his stoppage/KOs losses, Earnie was fatigued from punching himself out but still soaked up some pretty good punishment before succumbing or the fight being waved.

As to questioning Shavers condition based on info otherwise, I recalled reading Shavers stating that earlier in his career there were many times he wasn’t in the shape he should’ve been in so thought perhaps this was one of those times. Additionally, this was the fight postponed due to Jeff Merritt breaking his jaw and allowing time for healing which might or might not have effected Earnie’s prep.

But then, perhaps as a precursor to what we saw against Quarry, we have Earnie also being rocked by Ellis in his fight prior to. Shavers survived of course to KO Jimmy in the very same round.

And since we’re on the subject of quotes, Earnie did say after the fight he simply got caught. Period. He also said same in his bio, hopefully this will link successfully to the excerpt:-

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qn2n-lFDe0UC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=earnie+shavers+broken+jaw&source=bl&ots=3Xwm4bFYog&sig=ACfU3U1IJ1s6W_F_VveXWcARHLWTG4gYGw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDh9rQtqv0AhVaM94KHa1nAyIQ6AF6BAggEAI#v=onepage&q=earnie shavers broken jaw&f=true

 

Snap! This is true. I read about those very cases in National Geographic. If only they came to us, we could’ve told them what was really happening.

 

Williams fought Holmes. And no you can't dismiss him being the only person to stop him. That's a very good indicator of power.

He knocked Bugner down. The cut was a result of shavers punches. He stopped him earlier than anyone else, which goes against your claim plenty of people stopped his opponents sooner. Stop shifting the goal posts to avoid admitting you were wrong.

Shavers knocked young down in the rematch I believe. And once again, it contradicts your claim other people stopped young sooner. Young fought several murderous punchers and picked shavers, what does that tell you?

I don't give a **** about guys reactions, which is subjective and changes from person to person

 

Oh I fully acknowledge Shavers skill for delivering ko blows. He's top 5 in that department.

I meant overall ability and ring IQ

 

do you see this as a good reason they could see his punch and could prepare better I dont cause I said ali took 8 shots and not all was ones he was ready for ali couldnt take Joe's that same way and fell

dave hit people like I said with grazed shots no matter if they were prepared and they still feared that hook agian even grazed

its mutiple matches with earn and people took his sig shot and didnt fear it or did they take a clean shot and fell from only 2 shots from it real early as fast as a normal time of a dave match

your talking from quotes only ali said
larry said
Tillis said
all words nothing in ring shows he hit as crazy as they talked of it's all mythical

 

You're proposing that Frazier hit harder than Shavers?

If somebody can show you clips of an opponent taking eight Tua hooks without getting knocked out, will you say that Tua's power was also a myth?

Sam Peter took way more than eight power punches from Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko didn't even knock Peter down in their first fight. Was Wlad's power a myth?

I don't care much about whether fighters look like they "fear" Shavers.

I care about these facts:

1) Shavers knocked down or knocked out almost every elite fighter he faced.

2) Shavers has a very high KO percentage.

3) Shavers's punches look like they hurt people on film.

4) Just about everybody Shavers fought said he was an incredible puncher.


Only one of those four things is "quotes."