Roy Williams should have been awarded the KO in the Shavers fight

Perhaps. And if it had been another referee or different set of men in Shaver's corner, your proposed outcome may have occurred. But with all due respect, I don't think that we should be remiss in denying Earnie credit for weathering the storm and coming out victorious. its moment's like those that make boxing most memorable and Shavers gave us one of the best examples of what a fighting heart looks like. It was very similar to a scenario that occurred when Earnie himself had a young talented champion on the canvas, who was very nearly KO'd.

 

It takes guts to claim that Shavers should have lost a fight he went on to win by kayo, but its not completely crazy, especially considering how dire Shavers looked.

I think Sean O'Grady's win over Shig Fukuyama falls into the same category. O'Grady was taking horrible punishment and his face was a mess but he came back to stop Fukuyama, who seemingly gassed. Granted, the ending in that fight was far less conclusive than Shavers' win over Williams, since Fukuyama was stopped prematurely.

 

-h

 

Saturday Afternoon - December 1976

The Aladdin Hotel Theatre- Las Vegas

Attendance; 2160

I think anyone in the Earnie Shavers Camp would have complained if
the bout was stopped, with anything less than a true knockout or death
from a brain injury.

Earnie had previously signed an agreement letter to face Muhammad Ali in 1977.

To have a 'monster' like 6' 4" 230 lb. Roy 'Tiger' Williams bouncing punches
off of your fighter's head like that, a compassionate manager would have
thrown in the towell or rushed into the ring.

But, Earnie's corner (Manager, Joseph 'Blackie' Gennaro') was looking at 'money',
not Earnie's well being.

But the real issue, inpept Referee - Buddy Basilico, a guy who hadn't been the
'third man' in the ring in 3-years, and had a reputation of a Referee who let
fights go 'way too long' before stopping them.

 

I feel like there's tons of comeback wins after knockdowns or standing 8 counts that should've been stopped way sooner. A lot of it just comes down to the ref and how good they are- And even then, being a "good" ref is pretty subjective. You could be super conservative and try to make sure fighters don't take any unnecessary punishment, but at the same time, there's instances like these. Fights like Douglas - Tyson, Frazier - Tillis, Smith - Ribalta (Ribalta did lose, but I feel like he was robbed), and many others show that sometimes, you can't really be sure about when to stop a fight.

 

No, the referee gave both fighters the same chance, Shavers recovered, Williams didn't.

Great reffing.