Just watched the last couple of rounds of Earni Shavers and Roy Tiger Williams on U Tube,both men were staggering around like drunks ,gassed out ,Williams hurt Shavers witha couple of bombs,Shavers covered up on the ropes ,recuperates a little then bludgeons Williams with a right and they flail away at each other ,worse than Foreman v Lyle ,both hanging on,Earnie gets Williams in trouble again,Roy falls into the ropes exhausted ,the ref jumps in asks him if hes ok,steps back and motions the boxers to together,Williams takes one step and falls flat on his face out,some referee! Also watched Shavers against Henry Clarke ,the second fight,commentator Jerry Quarry,and what a good insightful commentator he was,he mentioned that Shavers was a "good winning fighter,but if he fell behind he usually stayed there",Quarry also called Shavers a "five round fighter",because his big upper body drained quickly of stamina,,Shavers apparently trained with weights ,he looked good stopping Howard Smith ,but poor against Bernado Mercado,a case of big punch and not much else.
I was abit baffled why Shavers team took the fight ,not many top heavies wanted to meet Tiger Williams,I liked the advice Earnies corner gave him afainst Howard Smith ,"go get him Earnie"! real tactical!
This was such a strange fight, Earnie just came forward behind a jab until almost the end, Roy did really nothing until he stunned Earnie then had nothing left after missing the big right uppercut. Thats what was most weird, that he would have that little in the tank to be totally gassed from one big punch effort like that. The end was kind of pittiful, Earnie looking totally amatuer stumbling forward throwing looping overhands at a Roy who had zero energy.
Earnie was administered a standing eight count for the same reason Max Schmeling was in the Louis rematch, because the ropes prevented a knockdown. If you review that action, you will see Shavers falling face forward into the ropes. Later, the same sort of thing happened to Williams, but he didn't have Earnie's level of conditioning. (For all his lack of endurance, Shavers may have been the best conditioned heavyweight in boxing at the time.) It's true that even with his massive punch, Earnie really was a front runner. He'd built up a huge points lead on Williams behind his underrated and badly underutilized jab, with his fabled right coming behind it into Tiger's body. (With all due respect to Tex Cobb, Roy and Henry Clark have to be the ultimate authorities on Earnie's right handed power. Tiger's body was Earnie's heavybag through most of their match.) It was Williams who entered the final round needing a stoppage to win, but Earnie, not the most durable of gladiators, was never tougher than he was in this classic. The relentless bodywork Shavers administered throughout the previous nine rounds finally caught up to Tiger. In the two and a half years prior to challenging Ali, Shavers had posted tenth round knockout wins over Williams and Rochell Norris, and also jabbed his way to a fine ten round decision win over well-seasoned contender Henry Clark, contests which helped lay the foundation for his competitive challenge of Ali. Tiger Williams wasn't his most famous win, but I believe it to be Earnie's greatest triumph.
