Ernie Shavers gets mentioned a lot. He was a fan favorite, huge puncher, nice guy, fun to watch. He was far from a technical master and he was stopped 7 times in 14 losses. He did score 68 KO wins in 89 pro fights. He won by decision 6 times and had 1 draw. 74-14-1 (68KO) overall and 0-2 in HW World Title Fights. What if Shavers focused a little more on being a slick boxer though? Different trainer, different approach in camp, whatever it took... how would things have been different? Let's look at his resume- Shavers turned pro in late 1969 and went 12-2 (12) through his first 14 pro fights. The wins were vs. low level fighters. One of those losses was a KO loss to Ron Stander, LKOby5 in 1970. He won his next 27 by KO. It's now the middle of 1972, he's 39-2 (39) and hasn't beat anybody decent. In his next fight he beat Vicente Rondon by decision, he won every round vs. the former LHW Champ. Shavers won his next 5 by KO. He stopped Jimmy Young in the 3rd and Jimmy Ellis in the 1st. He wasn't getting many rounds and his next fight was vs. Jerry Quarry in late 1973. He's now 45-2 (44) but hasn't really showed much boxing ability due to his aggressive style and quick KOs. Jerry Quarry stopped Shavers in the 1st round. From late 1974 through 1979 Shavers showed more skill in my opinion. After the Quarry loss he stopped Roy Wallace in the 1st round then took on Bob Stallings who dropped Shavers and won a decision. Things were not looking well for Shavers but he fought KO victim Jimmy Young less than a month later, November 1974. Young was a better fighter now and they fought to a draw... but Shavers showed some decent boxing ability in this fight. Shavers won his next 3 by KO, again vs. low level fighters, then he fought Ron Lyle. He dropped Lyle in the 2nd and almost had him out but Lyle eventually stopped Shavers in the 6th. He won his next 5, 4 by KO including a KO won and decision win over Henry Clark. He also stopped Roy Williams and Howard Smith. He was now 54-5-1 (52), he had been stopped 3 times. In late 1977 he fought Ali for the HW World Title. He dropped Ali and managed to win 6 or 7 rounds out of 15. The best Shavers ever looked in my opinion, some even felt he won. Next fight Shavers fought a pre-World Champ Larry Holmes. Holmes won a wide decision vs. Shavers but Shavers showed durability, I doubt Quarry would have stopped him this night. Shavers won his next 5 by KO then got a shot at Holmes' World Title in 1979. None of these fights went past the 4th round. He stopped Harry Terrell and Ken Norton... both by 1st round KO. It would have served him well to have fought someone who could have lasted into the late rounds. He dropped Holmes in the 7th round and almost stopped him but Holmes stopped him in the 11th. So? What if Shavers was better prepared for his biggest fights? What if he fought some better opponents leading up to these fight? Fighters that would at least give him some rounds. He has nothing to be ashamed of vs. Ali or Holmes x2. He dropped both and gave them trouble (not so much vs. Holmes in their first fight). He gave Lyle trouble as well but was stopped in the 6th. He was not well prepared vs. Quarry and took him for granted... it showed and he was stopped in the 1st round. He did stop Young in 3, Ellis in 1, and Norton in 1 among others. Had he had an Ali or Holmes type of training camp could he have been better? I do think he could have done better vs. Quarry and Lyle. I'm not saying he would have beat these guys, but I do think he could have done much better than what he did. Ali and Holmes? Maybe he could have won a few more rounds vs. Holmes. Just a thought.
Earnie was a credit to the sport and, from all accounts, a decent guy. Given your post I think he may have faired a bit better with better management/training tho his 'whiskers' have to always remain on the suspect list. Remember the Tennis star Roscoe Tanner? I always said they were similar athletes in different sports. Tanner's serve may have been the hardest in history but, once you weathered his bombs and got him into a volleying match he was toast, at least against the top contenders. IMO Earnie was simply too big and bulky to have been able to adapt to any other style. He also caught some of his bigger fights at the wrong time. I'll still say tho that the Quarry fight was somewhat of an anamoly. Jerry caught him with some sort of body shot in the 1st and the rest is history. Perhaps Jerry would have prevailed regardless but let's not forget that a scant three months later journeyman Joe Alexander had Quarry almost gone with a huge left hook in the first tho I've heard Jerry was having out of ring issues at the time but Frazier did bulldoze him three months after that, then Norton nine months later. Earnie attended Jerry's funeral, I've always respected him for that.
Ernie gave it all he had. He did as well as he could just the way he did. He had long arms, power and a will to win. Shavers never backed down and was absolutely committed to each shot he threw. That how he fought. Do or die. He knew how to land and he kept pitching, it worked for him but only took him so far. There is only so far you can go. Earnie took it as far s he could.
Pretty solid post ... he might have beaten Ali if he had more confidence about his stamina ... he might have punched out Quarry as well ... Earnie had decent defense, a hard jab and a long reach ..
Well written! The only thing I might add is that Jerry caught Earnie after they had stepped apart with a looping overhand right to the jaw as they started coming towards each other and that was the punch Shaver's was hurt by.
Interesting post! While Earnie didn't drop Ali when he sent him backwards into the ropes with that big right in the second round, many think he would have had he set into Ali the way he did Norton. Instead as Earnie later told it Ali faked him out and Shavers had no idea how badly Ali was hurt. Some fans including me beleave he would have stopped Ali had he thrown everything he had at him right then so bad off was Ali.
Ali was OUT on his feet, worst shape I ever saw him at the end of round 14. Shavers hit him with a right from hell right on the chin. Ali covered and just stood there along the ropes. Seemed like a stiff wind would have blown him over. Next round Shavers is beating Ali all over the ring and yet he comes back at rounds end nearly stopping Earnie as the bell sounds, Ali had amazing recuperation abilities.
Here's Earnie's rarely viewed decision win over Henry Clark in Paris, broadcast on CBS by Tim Ryan with Larry Merchant, perhaps the most atypical victory Shavers ever produced. He dominates with the jab and some surprisingly good movement in the middle rounds. Does tire after building up an insurmountable lead early, but applies good generalship. Reportedly, his right was compromised in this initial meeting with veteran Clark, and he does box from the outset as though he knows his jab will have to carry him through. I thought at the time this was a decent bout. It's the best display of boxing I recall Earnie putting on exhibit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaBSGzDLJbk
Earnie himself made it pretty clear in "Welcome to the Big Time" that an early watershed moment in his career was the firing of Archie Moore as his trainer, the Mongoose being made the Scapegoat for the fracturing of Earnie's jaw by Jeff Merritt in sparring for Jerry Quarry at the instigation of MSG matchmaker Teddy Brenner, who was extremely unhappy about the second postponement of this bout. [Ellis was a substitute for Jerry after JQ pulled out with the flu. The broken jaw of Shavers then postponed Quarry-Shavers from July 25 to December 14.] King hired Moore to train Earnie for Ellis, and Archie seems to have made a lasting impression on him. No telling how the Shavers-Moore paring might have unfolded if they'd been kept together, but Archie understood how to compensate for stamina issues. To me, that's the biggest question mark of Earnie's career, how it might have changed with Moore remaining as his trainer. [Frank Luca displayed exemplary loyalty to Shavers for many years though, sticking by him from his loss to Lyle onward.] I think Earnie may have been about as well matched as he could have been prior to his challenge of Ali, which in turn prepped him for Holmes I. Before his first title shot, he'd previously entered the tenth round seven times in his career, and ended three of those before the final bell rang. Ron Stander, Ron Lyle and Jerry Quarry stopped him, and he'd had that draw in his rematch with Jimmy Young. He didn't have Foreman's youthful self-conceit of invincibility going into Kinshasa. Shavers knew he could be beaten, and knew he couldn't knock out everybody he faced, because he'd already had those experiences. Aside from getting taken into the tenth round twice by the smaller Peralta, and once earlier by the smaller Levi Forte, Foreman hadn't been extended much prior to taking on Ali. Each of his eight bouts after 1971 had ended in less than two rounds. Unlike Foreman, Earnie had decisioned taller opponents than himself in Rondon and Clark. 1976 afforded him good preparation for Ali in '77 with Tiger Williams and the two bouts with Clark. Those three tenth round knockout wins also suggested that Shavers had better late round power than George displayed during the 1970s. Confidence in his own stamina wasn't Earnie's issue as I see it. He knew his limits. Lacking the physical template for great endurance with his heavy arms [like 50 pound clubs], he was already 32 years old when he challenged Ali. He had never been in a bout scheduled for more ten rounds at the time, against a master of the championship distance who had competed exclusively in scheduled 12 or 15 rounders since 1963. Shavers did indeed get tired during the later rounds of his decision over Clark, despite relying primarily on his jab. He wasn't going to hang on for 15 rounds after building up an insurmountable early lead on the cards, whether he relied on jabbing or not. [And he wasn't going to beat any version of Ali with his jab, regardless of how effective it was against Clark.] Yes, Ali was hurt by Shavers, and was aging. But this was somebody who survived after getting severely staggered early in round 11 of the FOTC. He would later survive round nine against Holmes after getting doubled over early. Larry didn't have Earnie's power, but he was a more effective finisher, and he went hell for leather in the 25 or so seconds after doubling an old, rusty and Thyrolar overdose impaired Muhammad. He loaded up for the remainder of the round, but Ali would either shove him off, dance slowly away, or fire back enough to keep the referee from calling a halt. Berbick did manage to hurt him a few times, but Ali didn't have much difficulty getting to the final bell against somebody who had just taken Holmes the limit, and previously laid out John Tate. To get to Ali, Shavers had repeatedly hurled right hand bomb after right hand bomb into the body of Tiger Williams, only for Roy to come back in the final two rounds almost as if nothing had happened, before Earnie pulled it out, starting with that desperation right off the ropes. Following the second round against Lyle, Ron positioned himself against the ropes to counter while Shavers blasted away until he ran out of gas. In Lyle's home town with that altitude, Earnie probably didn't have a chance. [He may also have a point in asserting Lyle-Shavers should have ended then and there. Ron got up after six seconds with difficulty, but the referee completed his mandatory eight count 12 seconds after Lyle fell, just long enough to prevent Earnie from reaching him again before the bell sounded. Today, on neutral turf, that one may have been halted by a neutral referee with Ron swaying back against the corner like that.] Had Ron been stopped in that second round, Shavers might have gotten Norton's main event shot in Yankee Stadium. If Ken got his rubber match with Ali AFTER Earnie got his crack, the title might have changed hands without controversy, and it would have remained an undisputed championship. Leon Spinks would have never entered the picture, and Norton, Shavers and Young might have played hot potato with the title until Holmes ascended in '78. So Shavers had previous experience attempting all the things it has been suggested he should have tried when he challenged Ali. Given benefit of hindsight, there are things which later happened with Muhammad against Holmes and Berbick which suggest even Earnie could never have succeeded in stopping Ali, a master of survival. Choklab is correct. I too think he took it about as far as he could. Holmes I took place right after the WBC stripped Leon Spinks and awarded their title to Norton. Then Larry shocked everybody with his abrupt improvement from Arrington. Ken was a sitting duck for any major slugger who could get to him first. Going into March 1978, Shavers was the only top shelf heavyweight puncher in immediate title contention, and Norton wisely wasn't getting any closer to Earnie than a ringside microphone until he had no choice for getting a return engagement with Holmes. Did Shavers apply the smartest tactics he could with Ali, in the absence of not knowing what the round by round scoring of the live broadcast revealed? I think so. Lyle set a pretty good precedent by holding the lead over Muhammad entering round 11, and Ali was now two and a half years older and more worn. Earnie took a good shot at finishing matters in two of the last three championship rounds, but the champion still had enough in his tank to weather through. Sam Solomon had a brilliant template for Leon Spinks to carry out Muhammad, but Shavers didn't have the youth, accuracy or work rate to counter Ali's rope a dope by splitting his gloves with uppercuts or hammering his biceps for 15 rounds in 1977. Add to that the fact of Earnie softening Muhammad up for Leon, and I'm given to wonder if Leon could have beaten Ali in place of Shavers, even fighting the same fight he did in February 1978. What if young Frank Luca had indeed opted to do what Dundee did, and have the live round by round scoring conveyed during the rest periods? I don't think Earnie makes it to the final bell by increasing his pace and applying his usual frontrunning tactics without ever having been scheduled for more than ten rounds before. The power he displayed in the championship rounds had to be a tremendous surprise to Ali and Dundee, as only FOTC Frazier had ever subjected Muhammad to that kind of force that late in a contest. Realistically, rounds 13 and 14 provided a better possibility for stopping the GOAT than round two, being more unexpected against a more fatigued champion, but it wasn't enough. Going the distance with Ali the way Shavers did, rather than going hell for leather and burning out quickly in round two may have cost Earnie the title that night, but it also kept him in contention for another shot. Almost exactly two years later, he got his second title shot at Holmes, and nearly put Tillis out in the ninth with a single shot during a live ABC broadcast in June 1982. If Tillis hadn't gotten up [and it looked at first as if he couldn't], then Shavers might have suddenly found himself back in contention yet again with another big fight.
Nice to hear some love for Earnie. He actually gets picked on a lot for his stamina, chin, etc, and for some of the guys he lost to. But consider this: In 1969, Earnie fought 7 times. In 1970 he fought 12 times! In 1971 he fought 17 times! This is an old school pace. We all know young prospects fight more often than veterans, but even so, this was a tough schedule. So, if he loses to a Ron Stander in the midst of it, it's not that big of a deal. In the old days guys might fight 10 times a year, and if they lost once or twice it wasn't held against them all that much. Earnie came up the hard way, no doubt. He had some bad luck, too. Yes, I think nowadays the fight with Lyle would've been stopped in Earnie's favor. It was kind of a Lewis-McCall situation that went the other way. I personally think he beat Ali, though I know certain parties on here cannot tolerate this opinion. I think it's quite possible that Holmes thumbed him in the second fight. He knocked out Young, Norton, and Ellis. The guy was serious business and deserves all the respect in the world.
Thanks for reading. I've been generating some long winded posts lately for some reason, and not really expecting anybody to bother going through the ones I've actually submitted, so I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Curious to know if anybody else here has actually viewed the entirety of Shavers-Clark I [whether broadcast live at the time, or now] and what their comments are about Earnie's performance in Paris. Shavers showed surprisingly good lateral movement, which may have been learned from playing on the gridiron. He also jabbed well while on the move, actually scoring points while on his toes. Norton could score well off the ropes, flat footed in mid ring, or when he caught somebody like Ali against the ropes, but I don't think he was particularly good during mid ring transit, whether tailing a moving and jabbing Ali or Holmes without punching for several rounds, or giving ground to Foreman or Cobb. [Ken decisioned Tex by countering off the ropes.] Earnie had physical limitations, but I think he was pretty smart given the context of those limitations. He very deliberately keeps the boxing with Clark in mid ring when Henry heads to the ropes. He had his Kinshasa in Denver with Lyle in playing the Foreman role to Lyle's Ali, and wasn't going to repeat that again. Shavers-Clark I would be an interesting one to compare to Foreman-Peralta I. Larry Merchant was pretty new to television broadcasting in March 1976, and had to be bewildered by how this one unfolded. He was not yet comfortable in this milieu at age 45, and wouldn't be for a while longer. Shavers-Clark I provides a little broadcasting history for anybody who doesn't realize Merchant was on the air before joining HBO in 1978. [I'm not sure exactly when Merchant began live commentary for fights, but Shavers-Clark I was extremely early in that new career for him. As this footage proves, he and Tim Ryan go back a long way, but Ryan became more iconic with Gil Clancy partnering on network broadcasts.]
Oh, if only Patterson had that kind of confidence! Believing in oneself is essential to most successful competitors. But we know damned well that Earnie didn't have the accuracy, stamina or punch resistance to prevail against most ATGs. He's phenomenal in head to head power hitting comparisons, but not in that many competitive head to head hypothetical pairings. [The slow starting Norton is one of those exceptions though. I just can't see Ken lasting for long against him, as he never proved he could do this against a slugger like that. From 1970 to 1979, he managed to look more formidable than he really was largely by eluding guys like Mac Foster, Ron Lyle and Shavers. That's exactly what good management, matchmaking and promotion should do to build up a contender and keep him looking good. Norton had that going for him for nine years. From Garcia I in February 1970, to Shavers in March 1979, he only got bombed out in his title shot at Foreman. That's how it's done, folks!]