Earnie Shavers v Gerry Cooney

Both guys hit hard enough to knock a wall down and both have suspect durability.

Anything can happen but I'd favor Shavers due to him actually having success at the highest level. Cooney really never beat a live body.

 

Shavers KO8

 

Holmes dropped Cooney with a single right hand in round two. Nobody dropped Shavers with one shot. It took an accumulation, sometimes aided by fatigue to land him.

Earnie stood up to bombs from Lyle for five full rounds, dropping Ron in the process. He also decked Mercado and took return fire from Bernardo for seven rounds. He got up to knock out Jeff Sims, who many were touting as the second coming of Sonny Liston, and came back from a standing eight count in the final round with Tiger Williams to produce the knockout. (Cooney never got up to win.) When confronted with a huge slugger himself, Shavers was no Killed Kenny Norton in the headlights, and he certainly didn't avoid threatening opposition. He was willing to take on anyone, a far cry from Foreman's candid evasion of Jerry Quarry.

Gerry was actually lacking in physical strength for a heavyweight of his size, while Earnie was among the very few contenders of his era to lift weights. In close quarters, Cooney could find himself getting mauled and manhandled rather severely.

Cooney was slow. Shavers, on the other hand, had underrated hand speed, and a good jab to go with his 80" reach (freakish for a man standing six feet tall), although he rarely deployed his jab with regularity aside from the decision win over Henry Clark. His left hook was far more dangerous than Gerry's overlooked right. (Cooney initially stunned Norton with his right, tore open Jimmy Young's face with it, and flattened Philipp Brown with a right, but it was virtually invisible in the challenge of Holmes. Earnie decked Lyle with his hook, was the only man to ever drop Jimmy Young, again with his hook, and he started Norton on the spiral down with a hook.)

Who was the harder puncher? Gerry's force seemed to make no impression on Young. Earnie needed just one hook to drop Jimmy in their rematch. (Other common opponents are Lyle, Norton, Holmes, Leroy Boone and George Chaplin. Boone would be a good one to ask for comparing the power of the two. This rugged journeyman went six rounds with Cooney in December 1979, the latest round Gerry ever stopped anybody in. Two fights later, Leroy became one of the few to lose a ten round decision to Earnie. Chaplin is another fellow I'd like to buy a drink for, and discuss Shavers, Cooney, Coeztee, Page, Bobick, Bey, Koraniki and Ferguson with. Koraniki, Bobick and Shavers are pretty good scalps for a heavyweight of Chaplin's caliber. He had a very respectable career, and seems to be a really good guy.)

If Gerry got hurt, his inability to tie up his attacker would be fatal. Shavers dropped Mercado in round three. Bernardo neutralized Earnie's repeated follow up charges by clinching and smothering, causing Shavers to expend himself in the process. Cooney couldn't do that. (Mercado would have been a nightmare for Gerry.)

This outcome is not a matter of who lands first. It's a matter of when Earnie lands first. When he does, Gerry is not recovering.

 

I believe this fight was scheduled in 1980 or 1981 and Cooney pulled out with an injury (big shock)

Either way I think Cooney could have got Shavers out of there if it goes past 6 I think Shavers chances increase greatly.

 

Gerry had the reach and the hook to take Earnie out of there early but if he get nailed it could spell the end for Gerry, If the fight goes past 7, even though Gerry only fought 8rds before the Holmes fight Earnie fatigued quicker. I would not be shocked if either man went out

 

Earnie, probably due to the experience level, would beat Gerry in three rounds.

 

While its possible that Earnie could have left Gerry on ***** street with a single right hand, I'm not about to chalk this whole fight up to Shavers having a "puncher's chance." Gerry was just as dangerous in the early rounds, and Shavers was beaten early on more than one occasion. He was unable to escape the barage that Quarry unloaded on him, and Cooney had much more fire power than he Quarry did. It basically comes down to who has their way with the other first. The first one to get the other in trouble will likely win.

 

Cooney did have much more fire power than Jerry, but he didn't have the same ability to take a shot, and nowhere near the quickness or experience.

Shavers did nail Jerry solidly in the opening moments, and Earnie has confirmed that he connected well, to no effect. If he lands first on Cooney like he did JQ, does Gerry proceed as if he hadn't been hit at all? Very few could survive an exchange of power with Shavers, and I just can't see Cooney hitting him without getting hit himself.

 

You seem to operating under the pretense that this is a one punch deal for Shavers, and I'm not sure that I'm sold on that notion. Sure, Cooney was dropped by a shot from Holmes, but then again Quarry was sent to the canvas by Chuvalo, resulting in a loss. I'm also not so sure that the punche(s) that Shavers landed on Quarry were his sunday shots. He barely had any chance to wind up for those.

 

/thread.

 

Even Earnie rarely produced one punch knockouts against top notch competition not named Jimmy Ellis, but Gerry never demonstrated recuperative powers against a first rate puncher. If that had been Earnie in there instead of Holmes when Larry decked Cooney in round two, Gerry would have been getting swarmed over. At least Shavers got up to prevail against the lethal Jeff Sims, came back when he was almost out of it with Tiger Williams, and came from nowhere to flatten Holmes and Tillis. No, I don't necessarily think he stops Cooney with the first big punch he lands, but I do believe he can stop him as a result of an initial blow with a follow up strike. During the reign of Holmes, only Marvis Frazier went down faster.

Some of the most damaging blows I ever struck were not as the result of a wind up, but short, abrupt deliveries, which caught my target by surprise, and where most of the energy was not expended before I connected. I would think a particular shot wasn't much of a punch, but then be startled at the reaction which resulted. An amateur champion who was a friend of my father's gave a demonstration when I was a kid. My brothers and I had rigged up a burlap sack as a heavy bag in our garage when he came for a weekend visit. As my father held it for him, he stepped into a jab which exploded from his body into the bag. The bag vibrated along with the building, prying my father's hands off, and knocking him to the ground. (My dad is six feet tall, well over 200 pounds, and had good natural strength before gout and arthritis started ravaging him.) We then took turns trying to hold onto the bag and stay on our feet, and failed repeatedly. Again, he wasn't winding up.

No, Shavers didn't nail JQ with the type of Sunday punch which felled Holmes, but he has said they were solid contacts. Jerry was under the impression immediately afterward that Earnie never hit him. Shavers could have saved face by saying he did fail to connect, but instead, he manned up and verified the truth about this. Earnie could punch short, and frequently did to the body.

 

Good information, and you're probably right.

I just think that this is a pick 'em fight. Anyone can take this match. Shavers had more than enough power to finish Cooney off early, and with Cooney's lack of recuperative powers, would not likely come back. I think the same or similar outcome could happen in reverse, but I wouldn't put a nickle of my money on either man.

 

I wouldn't put a nickel of your money on either man myself, let alone a nickel of my own money. I've been trying to hash a reasoned conclusion, but we all understand there's no substitute for actually having them fight it out. It can make for good conversation, but I certainly don't blame folks like JohnGarfield from steering clear of such speculation. (Of course he doesn't need to, with the first hand treasure trove of memories he has!)