Fights in which the WINNER lost everything he or she had left

I've been posting this for many years now. At a grievous cost though, it did cement the supremacy of Ali's chin for all time. Nobody ever stood up to as many clean head shots from Earnie as Muhammad did. Ali proved himself to be more impervious than anybody ever has proved himself to be, and it retirement, on camera while he could still talk clearly, Ali in turn cemented the supremacy of the legendary Shavers power.

 

Leotis Martin vs Sonny Liston

Biggest win of his career, only for it to end due to Liston causing so much damage that it detached Leotis' retina

 

Overlooked in the subsequent death of Benny Paret is the fact that Gene Fullmer's final career win was his war with Benny. The Cyclone's career ending trilogy with Tiger was next, and Gene wouldn't win any of them.

Gene had been hot since Robby knocked him out in May 1957, undefeated in 17 straight with Paret. In that 17 bout undefeated streak, he fought Robby 3X, Giardello, stopped Basilio 2X to retire Carmen, beat Spider Webb 2X, Tiger Jones and Florentino Fernandez. After Tiger retired Gene in their third title match, Giardello dethroned Tiger. Both Dick Tiger and Joey Giardello were older than Gene.

Did Paret eliminate Gene's potential to defend against or regain the MW Title from Tiger because of the war with Paret?

 

Marvin Johnson vs Leslie Steward 1

 

Snap! Just thought of that fight but luckily was mindful enough (at least on this occasion, lol) to check for its prior mention. A perfect fit for the premise imo. Excellent call.

 

Johnson followed that up with a tremendous defense against Jean-Marie Emebe. I think that's the fight I'd pick for him.

Either way, he clearly had nothing in the tank when he rematched Stewart in Trinidad.

 

In two fights with Shavers, Holmes was hit by a clean head shot from him once, and it messed his face up. He’s said his face hasn’t felt right since. One punch.

and Shavers got Ali with a bunch of those in one fight.

 

A strong “metric” for Shavers power (imo) was the 1-2 second delay before an opponent experienced a disturbing loss of bodily control.

It was as if the shock of Earnie’s punches took a moment to literally travel to all parts of the body.

Visually, it was incredibly dramatic - to name 3, we saw it in the Roy Williams, Henry Clark II and Ali fights - an effect Tex Cobb joked about and exaggerated with the “break your ankle” comment.

There were many times Ali got hit and then, within a second or two, his knees would badly buckle - Ali often covered the effect with mock hurt or feigned surprise.

I think Earnie fought his best fight against Ali - relative to the specific opponent. If he went for broke early, I think Ali would’ve still survived and gone on to stop a badly gassed Shavers at the mid way or 3/4 mark.

As it was, Earnie paced himself beautifully and saw out the whole 15 rounds while still landing many big punches along the way. I believe Ali did win the fight but I haven’t watched it many times.

 

Earnie said that knockdown of Larry was from the hardest single punch he ever landed, meaning that could well be the very hardest punch in boxing history. (Holmes came in at 209, in absolute peak condition, and saw it coming, so he was able to survive. Shavers hit Tillis with JUST ONE, and had Quick flat on his face for nine seconds in the ninth round before James abruptly jumped back on his feet, shocking all witnesses.)

Ali's ability to take it to both the head and body was off the charts. Chuvalo and Frazier said pounding his body was like hitting cement.

 

After Shavers reviewed the videotape the following day, he insisted for the rest of his life that Ali was the rightful winner of that decision. I do agree Earnie fought his best fight, yet barely hung on at the end anyway. So if he'd gone any harder, he wouldn't have reached the final bell. Foreman could never have done what Shavers did, and Earnie will always be well remembered for it.

Tiger Williams certainly absorbed an awful lot of right hand bombs to his huge body. I believe Larry Holmes said he's a soul singer now, and still huge, of course. I'd sure like to ask him about Shavers. Ali took the most head shots from Earnie, but Tiger took the most hard shots from Shavers in all.

 

It would be great if someone could catch up with Roy Williams for an IV, including some
current day snaps.

Roy had a pretty decent jab and it gave Holmes some trouble if I recall my last viewing of that fight correctly.

From watching the Williams - Shavers fight, it seemed that Roy had strangely abandoned his jab - or at least didn’t use it anywhere near as much as he did in the Holmes fight.

He might’ve made his life a bit easier in his fight against Earnie had he jabbed more.

One thing that facilitated Earnie’s punch deliveries was his relatively and absolutely long reach (about 80”) which helped him get over many of his big overhand rights.

 

For Marvin to last as long as he did, and go as far as he did, after Saad I & II, EMM, that kill shot from Michael Spinks, then yet again torturing the ubiquitous Davis brothers is crazy.

I saw his bout with Alvino Manson on ESPN, where just a few left uppercuts did the job in mere seconds. People often forget the guy was about as deadly a puncher as anybody in the loaded LHW division of the late 1970's and nobody else stopped Eddie Davis twice. The guy put the steel chinned Galindaz on the deck with a deadly left cross. You could make him gas with a good body attack and solid resistance, but if you were stupid enough to try rope a doping the guy, he'd run you out of the ring, and then the stadium or arena. He trained hard,

Five of his six defeats were to world champions, two of which are in the IBHOF. His only decision loss was over eight rounds to the excellent Lotte Mwale. Pops could well be enshrined in Canastota eventually. (He should be, considering some of the junk that's in there.

 

Tiger did briefly deploy his much longer jab on Holmes, and conclusively drove Larry back with it.

If it hadn't been for Roy's passive reactive sparring partner mentality, he'd have definitely won, and just maybe have pulled off a stoppage win. In the closing seconds, his hook wobbled Holmes against the ropes. He could have out jabbed Larry and did hurt him with that hook. It was Tiger's fight to win or lose, but he ceded initiative and aggression to Holmes, and that was all the difference.

Shavers? He almost won in the last round after his version of the rope a dope had expended Earnie to exhaustion, but then Shavers caught him as he moved in for the kill with that long right off the ropes, to turn the final stanza completely around and enable Earnie to crush him in the opposite corner for a standing eight count, after which the big guy toppled over, forcing the referee to wave it off, one of the most delayed knockdowns I can recall ever seeing. It was over at 2:46. If Shavers hadn't landed that desperation right as he was leaning against the ropes, Tiger would've had enough time in the round to finish him, and Roy HAD to stop him to win.

 

Brit bodybuilder bruno was already on his last legs when he faced McCall. it would be his last shot at winning the title an though he managed to get the decision after building up a early lead he was hanging on for dear life in the last couple of rounds an look almost dead at the final bell. The fact that Tyson just out of jail after a 3 or 4 years stretch then almost killed bruno months later showed that Bruno had nothing left after beating McCall

 

Nice overview and analysis of the Williams - Holmes fight.

The self subordinating sparring partner mentality can be very much a real thing - some believe that Ollie McCall suffered somewhat from that mindset also.

Yes, I know exactly the Shavers’ right hand you speak of, thrown while Earnie himself was getting it stuck to him otherwise.

It took all the wind out of Tiger’s sails. A nice advertisement for Shavers’ single shot power.