Note from Muhammad Ali on hardest puncher in boxing history

I’ve read/heard Holmes say that the Shavers fight was the one that did the most significant damage to Ali.

I can’t be sure but I could guess there to be an ulterior motive, at least in part, that motive being to shift the spotlight from the damage that Larry himself inflicted on the come backing Ali.

Aside from his power, a signature of Shavers’ punches was the slight delay before their full effect kicked in - when the opponent disturbingly lost bodily control.

We saw examples of same in both the Roy Williams and 2nd Clark fights.

It also occurred shockingly, several times throughout the Ali bout.

Aside from round 2, there was another occasion when Earnie cracked Ali in the corner with a huge right hand.

Ali took it but then 1/2 sec later, Ali’s knees totally buckled - he then held Earnie and mockingly held his mouth open as if to humorously imply “wow!”

It was a legit wow moment for sure but Ali’s ability to recuperate and cover the magnitude of the preceding hurt was insane.

I tend to think that the measure on Earnie’s power very much included the punches on less vital areas - where more objective judgments can be made without being comprised by specific short circuit buttons being hit on the body (viz chin) where others might yield near the same effect with a certain combination of both power and accuracy.

In other words for Earnie, where ever he hit you - it hurt like hell and reverberated throughout your body and visually, I’ve seen Shavers hit guys in the shoulder and shift their bodies dramatically just from the sheer force.

That’s why I like Cobb’s quote on Shavers’ the best - exaggerated but with an element of truth - get hit in the neck by Earnie and it breaks your ankle. A whole body experience. Lol.