At his very best, Bivins did extremely well against heavyweight punchers, going 3-2 with the much bigger Lee Q Murray and 4-0 with Curtis Shephard, likely one of the hardest punchers ever. He also beat Coley Wallace, went the distance with Joe Louis. Prior to his fateful stint in the army, he was stopped just once, against a 27lbs heavier Lem Franklin who stopped him on accumulation and a body punch. On the other hand, Shavers is arguably the hardest puncher in history. Weighing around 210lbs, he'll have 20lbs on Jimmy Bivins who isn't elusive in the truest sense of the word. Exchanges seem inevitable. Who you got?
I think Bivins makes him look silly before knocking him out. He'd have no trouble avoiding Earnie's ponderous right and would counter him to death. I love Earnie. One of my fav all-time fighters. But Bivins is in a different league.
Earnie had that punchers chance to end things and I have seen him live many times but other than Norton-styles and a old Jimmy Ellis and a 10-fight Young who did he beat, he hurt a lot of guys but fell into the pattern of gassing and getting stopped I would go with Bivens but not a betting fight
Bivins was only stopped 5 times in 25 losses. Once very early in his career while he was still moving up from MW to Franklin, once to prime Ezzard Charles while on the decline, and three times to Moore while on the decline. He has an excellent record against punchers and went the distance with Charles, Walcott, Louis, Thompson, Sheppard, Murray, Mauriello, Baker, Henry, Wallace, and Savold. I would strongly favor Bivins, likely on points though he could stop Shavers as well. Even the fringe contender version of Bivins hanging around the 50s has a shot at beating Shavers.
