Is is this another blow out for Oscar? Does he do a job similar to that of Jerry Quarry by tucking up, fighting smart, and landing a big one on Earnie's decidedly suspect chin? Or does Shavers do a Kenny Norton on 'Ringo's' ass? Bonavena had a strange chin. Went twenty four rounds with Frazier without being on ***** street but got dropped by both Ellis and Ali. :think
Hard fight to call. Shavers is very under rated these days. He had pretty good skills. I think Ringo would have to outlast Shavers to win. Shavers had fine stamina in some fight. Later on his career he tended to gas.
Bonavena seems similar to the type of fighters who outlasted Shavers--Stander and Cobb, only much better, especially offensively. I lean to Oscar.
I can't see that at all. I'd be more inclined to think Bonavena blows him out than vice versa. I don't think it was a matter of Bonavena's chin, I think he got caught coming in by two master boxers who set up their punches very well. Besides, neither of them really knocked him out (Ali was a TKO, and Bonavena went down as much from exhaustion as anything), and both Ellis and Ali are deceptively good punchers. I would pretty solidly back Bonavena in this match. Tough, strong, awkward, and he can punch.
The Ali TKO was sheer exhaustion, in the vein of the Puritty/Wladimir stoppage except Bonavena lasted until the final seconds of the 15th. As for the Ellis knockdowns... Meh. Was he ever even down beyond that? He fought world class opponents on a very regular basis and his chin never seemed to lack anything.
Shavers would have to get him early and Frazier could not, Bonevena got dropped but got up, decent wiskers but he had good stamina for the most part (better than Earnie) Bob Stalling was short 5"9 but solid a bull and he wore Earnie down and dropped him. I think Bob had a 23-23 record....Oscar was a clubbing puncher, Earnie sharper but Shavers did not always have the finishing power oe the stamina to go with it.....I think I lean with Oscar...later stop 9 -10
I think it depends on which version of these two guys we're talking about. Bonavena fought Joe Frazier over many rounds on two occasions and floored him in both of those matches. On the surface it would look like he'd outlast Earnie and beat him, or at least the version of Shavers during the early to mid 70's. From about 1975 -1979 however, Earnie was pretty formidable and appeared to have shored up his stamina problem a bit. He took Holmes the distance twice and nearly Ko'd him. He fought Ali to the scorecards as well, and really creamed some decent fighters in Ken Norton, Roy Williams and Howard Smith. Plain logic tells us that we should probably favor Bonavena, but there was a brief time in Shaver's career where I think he could have stood a chance against almost anyone.
Earnie also had the fights where he was ineffective...Stallings, Young II, Rondon, Quarry, Stan Johnson, Stander and later on Cobb, Mercado, in between Lyle....Earnie landed on Holmes but Larry was open to the right hand...Snipes did the same to Larry and Weaver and Spoon rocked him...Norton was his best win but Ken was another guy that could not fight a puncher.....Still I agree a fight vs Oscar would depend on the which fighter entered the ring that night but durable guys like Stander,Cobb,Quarry,Stallings, usually had Earnie shoot his load and come up empty
Bonavena only floored Frazier in their first fight, if I remember right. But he did floor him twice in that first fight in the same round.
Bonavena, as clumsy as he was would have beaten Shavers quite handily, perhaps by a ko in 5 or 6. He could sure hit harder than Ron Stander, for one thing, and was just as rugged, IMO.
