Kalli Knoetzee vs Earnie Shavers (WBA Title)

Thank you for a unique thread topic Il Duce! I think that this would have been a knuckle dragging, primitive, nuclear powered shootout from the opening bell...whoever lands first may have taken it...but just for shits and giggles, I could see Knoetze landing first and sending Earnie down for a flash knockdown and getting a bit wild and overconfident in that first round in trying to end it and getting tagged by a still woozy Shavers with a real bomb and going down..getting up wobbly and staggering Earnie again before getting stopped for good by a couple of the Acorn's big right hands. A one round thriller.

 

Good projection. Wish some of these types of fights would have occured, but the South African political controversy messed up some good fights.

 

Longhorn, as much as I see Shavers prevailing over Kallie, it would be quite another story for Earnie against Knotzee's far superior contemporary Gerrie Coetzee..who would use his Bionic right hand to stop Earnie in 1 or 2 rounds.

 

Shavers would have beaten Knotzee. Shavers-Coetzee would have been competitive, I don't see Coetzee koing Shavers that early.

 

No, Knoetzee was not as good as a 1974 Ron Lyle. His "quality" wins were against Duane Bobick and Richard Dunn. In retrospect, these weren't much. Bobick was overated and Dunn was best known for being ko'd by a faded Ali. 1974 Lyle and 1979 Shavers both take him out in a few rounds.

 

hmmm... i think it would be a great little slugfest while it lasted... i think it definitely doesnt go the distance. probably ends early

 

Shavers would have taken him out in about four rounds ....

 

Disagree.

I went to some of Earnie's fights back then. I sure don't think he would've handled the role of being a road warrior very well. If he doesn't, he gets clipped and goes. And that Knoetze style of shoving and mauling and he threw hard powerful shots with both hands and didn't wait to look for a picture perfect opening or anything. Very physical guy. He was content to hit anything like the temple or top of the head or anywhere and was somewhat similar to early the Foreman version that just winged away.

Earnie did set things up a little more and was definately a guy looking for the right openings to fire off his big shots. And he actually has the advantage in handspeed in this.

There were 60,000 people for that Tate fight and the attendance may have been higher for a slugger's match w/ Shavers. And all of them cheering for their guy. Very hostile waters. A slugfest for sure. and I thought Tate was the style not making for a good matchup. But he sure did travel well and the ballgame was all over after that bad loss.


But a Shavers/Knoetze bout was never ever going to see any sort of title run for the winner. Too many warts. But a Knoetze victory would've set up a huge huge gate for that rematch w/ Coetzee for the title.

 

Exactly.

I just don't think Earnie is all that good of a road warrior & not many are. And the same applies to the K man. If Kallie takes his act to Ohio to take on Shavers, he loses.

 

Not to get in the way of a great fantasy match, but was Shavers-Knoetze truly close to happening?

If memory serves, Shavers was thought of as washed up prior to the March 79 Norton fight and was only brought in as a tuneup for Kenny in preparation for Norton's upcoming rematch with Holmes. When Shavers iced Norton I remember him moving into a Holmes rematch, taking Norton's place, right away. 'Course Holmes had to get past his tuneup, Mike Weaver, in June.

Meanwhile on the WBA side of the coin, I remember Leon Spinks being scheduled against Knoetze and Tate vs. Coetzee in a WBA tourney before the matches were changed and Spinks fought Coetzee and Tate squared off against Knoetze.

Thus my questioning if Shavers-Knoetze was ever really discussed.

Keep up the great work, Il Duce! I'm totally digging your Liston posts!