Earnie Shavers now lives close to me and works as a doorman in a pub not far from me in Liverpool, England. I got his autograph a few years a go, very charming and nice man to speak with. :thumbsup
Both Ali and Holmes said he was the hardest puncher they ever faced and between em they have been in with Foreman, Liston, Tyson, Frazier, Norton et al. Calling him a journeyman is sooo wrong I cant begin to explain. He is certainly one of the very best heavies not to have won a title and without doubt better than many that have. Without doubt one of the hardest punchers ever, if not the hardest puncher of them all. He didnt have the skills of an Ali or Holmes though, but then again not many ever have.
A notable exception being Carl Froch which makes him very formidable. Ernire Shavers has been living in England for a while now and apparently is a doorman in Liverpool
One of the hardest heavyweight punchers ever. When shavers hit him with a hard punch, Ali said it was felt by all his kin though the whole of africa.
Not that I know of. To be fiar you wouldnt want to, aside from the obvious, he's just a really nice bloke!
My mate wouldn't go inside with his bottle so Shavers pushed him to to ground. I watching from a distance as it kicked off thinking "You don't want to doing THAT, mate". I got some fake fight posters Photoshopped up announcing a fight with my mate and Shavers and put them up in our local.
Contender material sums up Shaver's perfectly and he was contender material in the days of fewer belts and in prehaps the deepest and toughest HW era of all time. If Shaver's were fighting today i wouldn't be suprised if he picked up a belt of two. The guy was chinny and had poor stanima but he did hit tremendously hard and was exciting. A good few years back he was actually working as a doorman in a bar in my city. Unfortunatly i never got a chance to meet him. :-(