Did Shavers really hit THAT hard?

He was overated as a puncher against quality guys, he did Ko Norton and an older Ellis( who had Shavers hurt and left himself open going in for the kill) and dropped Holmes hard but so did Snipes, He was a puncher but the Stallings fight, the Ron Stander fight,Vincente Rondon showed us he was one dimentional and not the murderous puncher legend that many make him out to be

 

You make some good points, but I have to disagree on some things. Just because he was vulnerable and lost some fights to lesser men, doesn't necessarily take away from what kind of puncher he was. Sure you can make an argument that he may have lacked in things like speed, skill, stamina, chin or whatever, but certainly not power. As for the losses to Stander, Stallings, and Quarry, what a lot of people don't realize is that between 1969 and 1975, Shavers fought over 55 times. You can say what you want about his competition, but the truth is, when you're fighting 10x a year on average, someone's bound to catch you on an off night once in a while.

 

take a look at his opponents a decision loss to Stan Johnson a 175lber, Shavers could hit no doubt but Bob Stallings 5"10 23-23 record dropped him and beat him, stan Johnson,Vincent Rondon went the distance with him but Bob Foster Ko'd Rondon in 2 the same year, and that is what a puncher should have done with Rondon

 

His power was as advertised.

It was other areas that prevented him from going all the way.

 

I rewatched a few more of his fight today. He's great at holding and hitting.

 

Foster was one of the greatest 5 175's in history. He was also blessed with an unbelievable combination of speed and power. Add accuracy. Shavers had but one of these attributes. It's a wee unfair to judge him off the Foster fight. Smith had power yet it was little Spinks that beat Holmes in the end. Power on it's own isn't everything. Make no bones, if Shavers had the ability to land his shots as often against a higher class as against lower he would have had great effect.