A brutal if wild variety of shots to get the stoppage against the ultra game and durable Stander. Love that barrage of uppercuts that melts Ron. Supposedly Merrit was the first to knock Stander down. Merrit was six foot five and a lean 218 here, though he weighed under 210 several times. Now he would likely begin to ply his trade at cruiserweight, as I can't imagine he's any naturally bigger then the likes of Okolie. The power of Merrit at cruiser is a terrifying prospect. This content is protected
Shavers said he, along with Lyle, hit him the hardest and that was in sparring, he apparently broke his jaw.
He had the power and ability to secure a world title shot but his lifestyle held him back and eventually cost him his whole career.
No, when was it? It’s believable, Mac Foster, like Merrit, was another wasted talent, but was spoke about in high regards on the way up.
"Reportedly Mac Foster may or may not have knocked out Sonny Liston in a sparring session at Dick Sadler's gym in Oakland Ca when Liston was preparing to fight Henry Clark in 1968. Reportedly the first round was even,so was the beginning of the second when all the sudden Foster hit Liston with a left hook,Liston sagged into the ropes and his behind almost touching the canvas then Foster hit him with a right hand and Liston fell on a knee and was about to fall face forward,when his seconds grabbed him under the arms and took him to his corner. They were using 16 ounce gloves. Foster recieved 30 dollars for the workout and 20 dollars for traveling expenses to get there." Had a link to the Sports mag it came from but it seems to no longer be available.
I think his ceiling is a shot at George Foreman in the summer of 1974 and an exciting battle while it lasts, with Foreman coming through in four or five rounds.
"Cocaine is a hell of a drug!" ~ Rick James on Dave Shappelle's Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories sketch, "I'm Rick James, B I T C H !" Look at what the light hitting Henry Clark does to Candy Slim in their rematch...: This content is protected Because of this debacle, when Shavers next faced Clark in Paris with a bruised third knuckle on his right hand, Earnie took no chances, stayed off the ropes, stuck and moved well, and made full use of his ridiculously long arms for a six foot tall man. (By far his most skilled preserved performance on footage, but you can see that as it goes into later rounds his arms and body were a bit too heavy to consistently support stylish distance work.) This content is protected He was heathy for their Yankee Stadium rematch in the semifinal to Ali-Norton III, and this time Earnie showed that he could do something Liston failed at, wiping the uber durable Clark in just two rounds.
Well, Mac was undefeated and apparently on his way to a late 1970 shot at Frazier. But he opened that year undefeated and came in to prove himself against Jerry Quarry. Mac produced the very finest performance of his career, but Jerry improbably came back immediately after getting smacked by the hardest right of Mac's career to wipe him out. Like Buster Mathis, Mac was simply limited at his best, and Jerry Quarry was just the guy to fully expose them both. Unlike Candy Slim, I do think Mac made the most of his ability, but it would've been interesting to see him try countering Frazier with the power he carried. This was the only potential contender with top shelf power pre FOTC Frazier might've had an opportunity to prove himself against. Instead, the other Foster, the very seriously overmatched Bob got the shot.
