Rocky Marciano vs Earnie Shavers

I knew I had unusually long arms when I went to buy a dress shirt for a funeral in high school and the tailor kept huffing, putting, and smacking his lips while measuring my chest and arms and getting frustrated as I kept trying different shirts that didn't fit.

Oh I wasn't suggesting my reach is common, I was just saying it's not impossible for someone that height. Plenty of people commented on it in sparring or while playing basketball I could guard guys even taller than me.

 

He knows. I literally told him twice and several other people did. We even quoted him directly with the video and he keeps repeating it.

 

Yes that was me. It's definitely unusual but not impossible. That's all I was aiming to address since people frequently doubt Shavers and Listons listed reach.

 

Good luck. Cobra, JT, and myself have told him this countless times.... But why let facts get in the way of an agenda?

 

Well I’m a Johnny come lately then, aren’t I? Go to the back of queue as they say. Ha!

I’ll just add that the broader claim was also that Shavers didn’t retain his power. Now Earnie didn’t KO or beat Ali - but over the course of 15 rounds - I saw Shavers connecting with punches with very well maintained power in the very latter stages - but it was Ali after all, a hard man to shift.

Ali was notably deteriorated in ‘77 but I rate that as one of Earnie’s top efforts - very nicely metered and paced, carrying his power all the way through. I would say Earnie should be very proud of that performance - but the way Earnie speaks of that fight - he quite obviously is very proud, fully appreciative of the work he did in there.

OMG, Ali so didn’t need that type of punishment, particularly so late in his career when even more vulnerable to permanent damage - and that’s not to say there wasn’t already irreversible damage in place.

 

Fun fight to watch. Both throwing bombs. Rocky harder to hit. Goodnight Ernie.