always was odd to me people said he was the hardest hitter ever whole leaving out weight and tech which it has been mutiple who hit harder then him and able to cause a stoppage or ko or stumbling way easier earn is way overrated and outdated to say he is the hardest hitter ever another thing thats odd is that dumb myth/quote of legends saying he hit harder yet those dudes didnt fight every hard hw in history so why care video matters not words
It is not odd to say someone is the hardest hitter if they faced them. What is odd, & perhaps unprecedented, is that everyone who faced Shavers, whether they won or lost, guys active from the '60's-'90s, so including having faced real big "modern" guys, say he hit *them* the hardest ever. They did NOT say he hit harder than every HW in history. Show us one person who fought himever who said this. We might rationally draw that as the likely truth-or pick someone else-but these guys uniformly limited their opinion to be hardest puncher I faced, unlike many analysts like Burt Sugar (who saw legends for many decades) who deemed him the GOAT in pure power. Myself & many others are tired of saying this, but nobody is saying he was near the best at causing a stoppage. Although he caused a huge number of them, most very early. But even with limited skills, chin, endurance for a Wold Class boxer, he was a huge KO artist. You have conflated efficiency with raw power. Also your "outdated" betrays a modern bias. And as for technique: nobody sai Earnie was tops in this department. Except for throwing haymakers, it was. The wind up, speed, snap/turning over punches. How heavy handed he was. For just producing power, his technique was better than the likes of Foreman. Yes video matters, & the effects of his punches even when not landing flush are huge. And as already pointed out often enough, most of his KOs are not even filmed. That say Tyson is better skilled & faster thuse gets more bang out of his power does not mean he hit as hard. Which I doubt Iron Mike would claim anyway, he is a student of boxing history & modest in these regards. Like Foreman.
I'd love to see all of Shavers's KOs, just because I enjoy watching Shavers fight. Even if they were a bunch of BS TKO stoppages I'd just like the opportunity to gauge his power fully for myself. Lots of quite good posts in the last few pages of this thread. Shavers definitely had his little tricks he'd use to wring more power/effect out of his shots, and the hit and hold uppercut, and borderline low blows followed by overhand rights were some of them. But he was also technically very proficient at landing hard punches. His OH was always well turned over and punched straight through the target, and from mid to long range he'd completely launch himself into the shot. Even at close range his punches have a thudding shotgun sound, which attests to his natural heavy handedness. Considering he was only 210 that's really impressive. You normally only see that type of power in stocky 230/240lbs guys. Of course he didn't punch as hard as a Wlad, Lennox, or Tua, but for what was essentially a CW he was nothing to sniff at.
