That's Earnie Shavers in a nutshell. He was probably my favorite fighter growing up, but although a great hitter, if you got him past the first few rounds, he was very beatable.
If Earnie had fought a Mike Weaver, Leon Spinks, or a John Tate, maybe the story would've been different.
As someone said here earlier,he used to be a doorman here in the uk for many years,bet most of the young guys and girls drinking there never knew he was once a very good heavyweight fighter,i remember seeing a report about it a few years back,seemed quite sad,did he not make lots of dosh back then?
Tua was more skilled than Shavers, it's not even debatable, just watch the film of both. Tua knew about defense, something Shavers had no clue about.
If Shavers would have fought guys like Ali, Holmes and Lyle he would knocked them all out inside a couple of rounds. A guy like Norton would beat him though. :bart
All the guys who fought him in a deep era cite him as the hardest puncher they faced. Mad respect for that. As far as his resume goes, I honestly find him both forgotten but when spoken of, a tad overrated even. H2H, he would blast out a good amount of top 50 HW's and I would pick him to do so. However, I would never favor him or give much of a chance over any of the top 25 ATG HW's, spare for perhaps a couple.
Put Tua in with boxers and the guy has absolutely no clue. Good chin yes, but more skilled? hell no. Shavers went the distance with guys like Ali and Holmes. Shavers would have been a lot more competitive with Lennox than Tua ever was. Shavers probably has a bit more of a chance of beating LL too.
He wasnt very good. He was a huge puncher one of the best ever in that department specially with the right hand and if he touch you with it chances are that you would get knocked out, outside of his power his chin was a bit shaky, he had poor stamina.He was a front runner If you could get past the first four/five rounds you would have a great shot at beating him.