........instead of Joe's fight with Ron Lyle. We all recall Bugner and Earnie getting it on in 1982 with Shavers in his 38th year,and Joe was coming off one fight in five years,when they stepped into the ring. Joe got up from a wicked right hand,but got stopped on a cut one round later. Now,in 1977,Shavers was coming into,arguably his best ever form,and Bugner,with a little more enterprise,could have turned the Lyle split decision his way. Who would have won in this scenario ?
Probably Shavers. The problem for Bugner in this fight is that he has a very confident, dangerous opponent and he's not a sufficiently hard worker to tire out Shavers. My guess would be that Shavers would win by split decision. He might drop Joe, but I doubt he could stop a 1977 Bugner.
I agree that we can't really use their actual 1982 meeting as a true representation of what a match might have looked like 5-6 years earlier.. Both were past prime, with Bugner being the far less active of the two, and that fight resulted in a cut stoppage, and not a KO. I'm not really sure to be honest as to how it might turn out prime for prime, but I am almost leaning towards Bugner, as he seemed to be the sort of opponent who outlasted Shavers..
I just don't see Bugner putting in the work. Shavers' wildness was at least game, so in the close rounds he'd pull out ahead.
It really would depend on Joe. This fight would not be close. Either Bugner turns up motivated ala Frazier/Dunn and easily outpoints The Acorn; or Joe is in just glad to be here mode, and drops a decision, possibly hitting the deck once or twice on the way.
Tough, tough call. Earnie would outwork Joe for most of the fight. He'd win 7 of the first 8 rounds. And then things would get interesting. Either Earnie would hang on and win the decision or else, exhausted, he'd fall to the canvas after being slugged on the ropes for a minute or two. Hard to say which way it would go.