Shaver's nearly pulled off the title win with a thunderous right against Holmes. Rahman actually did get the win over Lewis. So of the 2 ,who comes off Best .?
Well lets put this in perspective, If Rahman & McCall can Ko Lewis with one punch why wouldnt Shavers be able to ( maybe because of LL's strong offense) & if Oleg Maskev among others could KO Rahman cold why wouldnt Shavers be able to. As far as Shavers he was stopped a few times as well & beat up by ordinary fighters like Bob Stallings,Ron Stander & others so may be if he can get to Rahman before he shot his load like he did vs Stander,Mercado,Holmes,Lyle Quarry -Shavers was a one round war which Quarry prevailed but Jerry also owned a Fresh Unbeaten Lyle & a Mac Foster...Earnie went out fighting. My thoughts are Shavers lands something in the 1st 3 rds but cant bet the house on it.
Both are capable of hurting the other early ,so it could be a very short fight night. But I'm leaning towards Rahman surviving a early Shaver's death punch ,and stopping a tired Earnie in or around the tenth.
Sure would like Hasim's chances better if he had a left hook. Strictly a jab and big right hand guy. And he played offense or defense but never did the instantaneous counter kind of approach. Or a seamless offense to defense to offense type boxer. I think that just leaves too big of a window when it's a Shaver's in there winging away. If, and it's a real big if because he has minimal lateral movement, Hasim can establish that nice jab, he can pull this off. But I think Earnie dips to launch a bomb and Rahman is right in front of him at 12:00. My thoughts are the Rahman defense does not give him the time or rounds, to establish the jab. And he's ko'd by a big right hand.
If that were the case ,and with these two anything could happen, then Rahman would be one of Shaver's biggest scalps .Next to Norton and Ellis .
I'd take Rahman. Sure, Shavers has the power to switch the lights off in one punch. But Rahman himself was a thunderous hitter, and much more technically correct. He could counterpunch a bit too. Shavers lost to some pretty awful opponents and Rahman lost to top shelf opponents. All things being equal, Hasim should take this.
Both guys have lots of losses facing the elites. It sure would be a much easier fight for Rahman if he could throw a nice left hook in there. And Rahman's defense always saw him hit by opponents which does not help his chances against this guy. A little bit more boxing smarts would help the Rahman chances as well===something to turn to & successfully negotiate the rough waters.
I would not want to bet your money on this fight, but if I had to, I would pick Ramhan to spring his trap first.
