Shavers is the premiere single shot bomber in heavyweight history. He lacked in most other areas, and that is the reason he didn't become a dominant champion. I talked to Ron Lyle about his war with Shavers, and he told me that it was providence that he made it through what he was taking, that he never felt raw power like that again. Says that he lost to Foreman because Foreman was relentless, and eventually, one of them broke. He beat Shavers up, but not before taking some serious, serious work.
shavers always seems like a guy whose results don't match the reputation he has with other boxers and past opponents
If you had the chance to go to some of Earnie's bouts back in the day, they were frightening when he did land. He'd connect a lot easier on those C and B grade guys and it sounded like a gunshot in the arena. There was no way the other guy was getting up. Earnie got ko's. not tko's and so often the ko results are actually ref stoppages or something. Certainly not the case with Mr Shavers.
His reputation is for power alone. His skills were poor, not overly fast, crap stamina, limited durability, etc, etc. Power was pretty much all he had, but boy did he have it. Every one of the fighters quoted beat him. The guys power was frightening.
The rare thing that Earnie did as a puncher was to dip down when he loaded up and threw. Almost every other big hitter rises up to launch to utilize their legs. Shavers did things altogether different by dipping down and an opponent was not going to get much time to solve that particular form of attack.
In addition to which, the Holmes of January '88 can't compare resilience wise to the Holmes of September '79...
I believe this has something to do with it though. Fighters always compliment the power of those they have defeated more than those they have lost to, and Earnie Shavers lost to all of the top level fighters which I think contributes to how touted his power is.
Ernie beat Norton, who was a better fighter than Lyle. The fact is the guy could hit, he just wasn't a great finisher. Guys like Foreman and Lyle were better finishers and put their punches together better than Shavers did. Shavers had paralying power, and you had to have a great chin to get past him. Lyle was lucky to get hurt at the end of the round and not get caught with Shaver's right.
I respectfully disagree strongly in this case. Case Point - Norton and Bugner are also on record as saying Shavers was the hardest hitter they ever faced. Both lost to Shavers. Also Ali defeated Frazier, Liston and Foreman as well. Cobb was as honest as the day was long. Shavers power was just ridiculous, and we can see this plain as day on film.
The right that Tyson used to put down Holmes was almost identical to the one that Shavers put him down with. Overhand right, flush on the chin. Difference is, Tyson finished the job and became the only man in history to KO Larry Holmes.
Meh, this is a myth. Shavers was great at putting fighters down, but one punch KOs? How many did he have?
