Earnie Shavers & Cleveland Williams: Who Da Man?

Williams would be my choice. He was the better boxer, could punch almost as hard as shavers and had the better chin (most important factor). williams would probably stop shavers at around the 7th.

 

Cleveland Williams.

 

Is Williams chin as bad as people are making out?

The only people who stopped him before he received that gunshot injury were Bob Statterfield and Sonny Liston two of the hardest punchers of all time.

The only fighters who ever put him down for the count of ten were Bob Satterfield while he was green and Mac Foster while he was an empty shell (see the common factor).

He suffered a lot of TKO losses late in his career after the gunshot injury but does suffering a number of TKO's when you are past your best necisarily say a lot about your chin?

 

Shavers catches big williams.

 

Both guys had huge power and fragile chins. If I had to pick it would be Williams he was the faster and better boxer of the two so he is probably gonna land big first.

 

Now THIS is good matchmaking!! I'd have to say that if Williams were to avoid taking one on the chin (always the wildcard regarding Shavers) then he would either cruise to a decision, or blow Earnie away ala Ron Lyle. (who DID take one on the chin, but being a prime badass, shrugged it off).

 

i agree with this completely. but we are talking about the williams before being shot i may hope ???

 

I agree with this.

 

The question I'll pose back to you is what punchers did Williams beat during his career?

It seems to me that he didn't fight, let alone beat, many punchers (nor much top 10 competition in general). The best punchers he fought, stopped him. And that's prior to the gunshot. The two hardest hitters he fought pre-gunshot, he lasted a combined 8 rounds against over the course of three fights.

So, even if Williams does have the slightly better chin than Shavers, I'm not certain it would really matter because the real matchup is one man's power vs the other's chin. And to my amateur eye, both had weaponry far outstripping the other's armor. Even if the other guy only has on leather armor, what good's your chain mail if that guy hits you with a bazooka?

 

I could agree with that. I'd probably make it 60-40 Williams myself. :good

 

Earnie's chin wasn't all that bad. Holmes wasn't the best hitter, but he was a decent puncher and he hit Shavers with everything he had and Shavers hung tough.

Ali wasn't the best hitter either, but he was knocking Williams silly with every punch he landed cleanly.

But since both of these men hit like freight trains it really amounts to who hits who first. This is really anybody's fight.