Topic of the minute - Ali vs Shavers 15th round.....you score it!!!!

Agreed. Shavers landed a lot of blows on Ali for the first 2:30. He was just exhausted in the last 30 seconds and was taking some punishment, but it doesn't change the fact that Earnie was mostly winning the first 2:30 of that round. Earnie wins that one in my book...

 

I know the round by round scores were shown after each and every round (but not accumulative - just isolated to each round) - notably and understandably, this wasn’t done after the 15th round - rather, only the judges and ref’s total and finally tallies were read out after the fights finish.

Some fight score cards (round by round) seem night impossible to get hold off - ridiculous- and this fight is a case in point. I know I could tabulate the scoring up to and including round 14 and deduce how the judges/ref scored rd 15 but I’ll just assume they all gave Ali round 15 unless anyone knows better.

 

This is a real question.
People love Ali & his performance, + if Ali was more dominant than Shavers during his time winning the round that must be factored in.
BUT was Ali at least 5X as dominant?
Because that is how much longer Shavers was winning the round.
We are not supposed to disproportionately score a later dominance, but it is a human tendency to more vividly recall more recent events!

 

No. He threw a lot but he also missed a lot and had several of his punches blocked/parried. His connect percentage wasn't very good and threw a lot of wild inaccurate punches.

 

I voted even but actually watching it again yes Shavers did win it

 

Oh I agree totally, but it does happen

 

Great analysis GCC! It's exactly how I saw it when the fight actually happened
and re -watching it multiple times since.
Theirs nothing more that can be added. Ali won the last round convincingly in
a very close fight. He won the fight because of that final effort. Nothing
left to be said in my opinion.

 

Earnie Shavers dominated the majority of that 15th round he landed the cleaner heavier punches and was putting on the pressure and commanding the action. No disrespect intended to Muhammad Ali his fast flurry at the end was a valiant effort and certainly must have impressed the judges but I can't objectively conclude that the burst of energy at the end of that round was enough for Ali. Post Manila in 1976 he had a easy win against

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and then a dubious decision against Jimmy Young then enough easy opponent Richard Dunn whom he TKO'd then the controversial rubber match with Ken Norton then in 1977 a points victory over

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, Earnie Shavers and then a loss in 1978 to Leon Spinks a loss which he rectified by training very hard and disciplining himself for the rematch. Butch Lewis said Spinks threw the title away by partying and not even training. Post Manila if you score the Shavers fight in favour of Ali winning that was probably the last best win on his record. Ferdie Pacheco said the real cut off point for Ali was the Norton rubbermatch but he still stayed for two more fights and left the Ali camp after the Shavers fight. Even Teddy Brenner Madison Square Garden's urged Ali to retire after that fight because he could see the beating Ali got.

 

Shavers might’ve been “ahead” after 2 min 30 secs of the 15th round but that doesn’t mean that it gets sealed off with Earnie owning every second of that preceding duration. Still very close to that point and the work required from Ali to negate and exceed the lead wasn’t insurmountable - the work Ali did in the final 30 secs or so was arguably sufficient to edge Earnie when the whole 3 minutes is taken into account.

 

Shavers had a case for shading the first half of the round, even though Ali's punches were landing cleaner.

Over the second half, save for a sweeping left hook that was partially blocked but still able to drive Ali back, it was all Ali. He made Shavers miss a lot, landed the right pretty much at will and then surged in the final thirty seconds to hurt Shavers pretty badly in the final 30 seconds with an extended barrage to seal the deal and win the round. And, over the course of the last thirty seconds he landed more than enough to overcome whatever statistical advantage people might believe Shavers would have hand throughout the first portion of the round.

Really fun round, but one that goes pretty clearly to Ali, imo.

 

I mean this nicely and this is a stolen thought. Ali is the best at tricking people into thinking he won a round doing sweet nothing. As if every round was his and the opponent had to take it.

 

Doing damage wins rounds. End of discussion. If you make me look silly for two minutes slapping but I absolutely rock you to your knees once and you don’t hurt me. It’s my round. This is the hurting business not amateur boxing.

 

Well, since Ali succeeded in hurting Shavers and had him in more serious trouble than vice versa, I guess that seals the frame for him.

 

Up to you to say.