And stop him? Or would the 'Acorn ''crack Joe? Despite Shavers being a massive puncher, do you think he showed he had what it took, to stop the Smoke? 15 rounds
Its a dangerous fight. My own view is Frazier would force Ernie back on his heels taking away his leverage and maybe some of his confidence. I don't think Shavers would react to well to Joe's offense.
I don't think anyone walks through Shavers bombs. Whilst Shavers would have a punchers chance, the smart money would be on Fraizer's bob n weave to avoid the worst long enough to inflict his own damage on Shavers by getting his shots off first once in range. Frazier mid round stoppage in a fairly one sided fight, peak vs peak, would be my guess.
Is that what Shavers did? Good question, it may throw Joe out of his stride, maybe like George pushing him back?
I don't think that he could take too many bombs from Shavers. Fortunately for Frazier, Shavers probably wouldn't hit him with too many. The most likely outcome is that Frazier would close the distance and work Earnie to pieces. Shavers almost killed Jimmy Ellis with an uppercut and he may do the same to Frazier but I think Joe could take one and keep working, but you can't completely disregard the puncher's chance. You could hit Frazier with a right hand inside his hook but I don't think that Shavers had that type of quick, short, hard right hand, at least not consistently. The late, great Jim Murray summed him up accurately when he wrote that Shavers had a nuclear warhead of a right hand and delivered it via bicycle messenger.
Agreed, I think even If Frazier was hurt and KD’d Shavers might do himself in on the finish holding his breath swinging his arms… Quarry ate a big right from Shavers didn’t he? It seems the best chins often exceed the best punches.
I think Quarry might’ve beaten Foreman if it was possibly close to JQ’s prime, that’s a good fight and we’d learn a lot more about the smoke and mirrors 70s GF wouldn’t we?
I've never seen a video of the fight, but apparently Ron Stander took a lot of Shavers' punches and then eventually stopped ES. It might have been because of his conditioning/motivation, but Stander didn't hold up as well against Jeff Merritt later. I think Merritt was considered a big puncher too.
I believe that Candyman Merritt broke the jaw of Shavers and caused the postponement of the Shavers v Quarry fight.