Tommy Morrison vs Earnie Shavers

The worst part JT, is that with this newly restricted editing time limit, I'll probably wind up submitting countless posts like that...

 

That one was on purpose unless i misunderstand

 

Fixed...

Sorry JT....yes, I yet again caused you to misunderstand....most profane methane...uh...PROFUSE apologies to you, good sir...

 

Shavers does a Mercer on him.

 

All good buddy of course.

 

All those voters favoring Tommy need to take a close look at Bentt-Morrison, as Michael wasn't particularly known for his power.

I have pointed out repeatedly that Earnie was not as chinny as stereotyped. Because he was a slugger, his chin was often exposed to counters. Yet in his first 90 bouts covering a total span of over a quarter century, he was decked exactly six times that were significant...:

1) Ron Stander, whose uber durable chin absorbed everything Earnie had, until Shavers dropped from exhaustion, a valuable experience which taught Earnie there is no irresistible force in boxing, but there are immovable objects, a fact Foreman desperately needed to experience and accept before Kinshasa but never did. (As a result, Shavers did far, far better against Ali. Due to Foreman's power, youth and favored status, Kinshasa was an exciting event, but one which all commentators during Colonel Bob Sheridan's live call quickly realized the GOAT would win. In comparison to other title bouts against top heavyweights during the 1970's, Kinshasa was actually not a hard or close fight for Ali. Shavers was hell.)

2) Jerry Quarry. JQ actually walked through shots which Shavers admitted were solid connections, but from the moment Earnie was hurt, it took Jerry 58 punches to finally drop him, and the Bellflower Bomber had ten count knockout power in both hands. (Because Jerry's hands were so quick, and Earnie's back was to the camera most of the time, I had to slow the YouTube speed to count the number of JQ's punches as best I could. Common opponents of Ali, Patterson and Jerry, like Ellis, Mathis and London, seemed to indicate that while Patterson and Ali had faster hands, JQ was quicker. Muhammad always acknowledged Jerry's quickness, and admitted JQ could hurt him if he could somehow get close enough. That's why Ali was in peak condition for their rematch, certainly his best performance between Big Cat and Big George.) Earnie didn't know where he was when he got up, and Arthur Mercante rightly stopped it, but Shavers did get up after Jerry's relentless barrage of massive shots.

3) The absurdly underrated Bob Stallings decked a tired Shavers with a chopping right in round nine, but Earnie got up to reach the final bell. This one was scored 6-4 on all cards, hardly a blowout win for Stallings, but monumental for this respected journeyman. Another good experience for Earnie.

4) Ron Lyle. Ron was within one punch of getting knocked out when the bell rang ending round two, did well to beat the count from the knockdown he'd just risen from, then an attacking Earnie absorbed Lyle's counters off the ropes until he necessarily punched himself out at altitude, since a knockout was his only hope of winning in Denver. Again, he dropped for the count from sheer exhaustion more than the power of Lyle's punches, but again, an extraordinarily valuable experience as he pushed himself to his limits.

If Tommy Morrison had been on the receiving end of Lyle's bombs off the ropes like Shavers was, it quickly would've been Morrison-Bentt all over again. Mutual opponents of Foreman and Lyle said their punching power and physical strength was about equal, although Ron was a clean boxer with better stamina, while George aggressively used his physical strength in an illegal way he was sometimes penalized points for.

We have the footage. Earnie was standing up to monstrous bombs from Ron through rounds three, four and five, without buckling and he wasn't powered down during those three legendary stanzas, then wound down, and anybody who's been to Denver from a lifetime at sea level can appreciate what effect this immense exertion had on Shavers, who finally could no longer stand up under Ron's Foreman equivalent punching power in what was not only a Foreman-Lyle level legendary war, but brilliant battle by both gladiators. (Ali reluctantly admitted after knocking out Bob Foster at Stateline that the altitude bothered him, and Muhammad's stamina was legendary.) At the beginning of round six, with Earnie having punched himself out, it still took Lyle 11 massive bombs to drop Shavers for the count. In Lyle's next legendary war, Foreman, it took six punches to produce the first knockdown on George, and essentially it was a single right which dropped Foreman the second time. Ron also wobbled George repeatedly, something he didn't do to Earnie until the concluding round six.

5) Mercado. Bernardo was a huge hitter who uniquely one punched the durable Berbick in a single round, made Weaver have to get up to stop him in Mike's coming of age match, then had to get off the floor to put Shavers on the floor. But Earnie got up and was on his feet when it was stopped.

6) Jeff Sims on the undercard of Ali-Berbick decked Earnie in the opening round with a single lightning right, but Shavers got up and stopped the undefeated and widely feared Sims in five for the definitive comeback win of his career.

7) The meaningless Yates knockout from three short chopping second round rights in a match the 51 year old Shavers was winning with aggression up to that point. Nobody counts that as an indicator of Earnie's punch resistance. At this stage, Earnie had lost his punch and chin, but was still at his peak weight of 211 pounds, albeit with a now heavily degraded physique.


So six significant official touch downs in 90 fights, never more than once in any of those six bouts.

Larry Holmes was a dangerous puncher at the time of his rematch with Shavers. He one punched the reasonably durable Evangelista (who would finish with four stoppage defeats in 69 outings), hammered Ocasio into the dirt with his jab, and essentially ruined Hercules with possibly the hardest head shot he ever unloaded, that huge right uppercut. In round two alone, Larry hammered Earnie with 60 of those jabs he wrecked Ocasio with. In 23 rounds with a peak Assassin, Earnie never touched down.



Again, in comparison to Shavers, Morrison looks awful with Bentt. Earnie wouldn't have been hurt from something like that.

 

Morrison did go down against Mercer, but it wasn't official, because he didn't touch down until a moment after the referee stopped it (even then a little late). Down twice against Carl Williams in a bout he recovered to prevail in. Down four times against Lennox, the third time from a simple sharp jab, raising some questions about how Tommy would've done against the Holmes of Ocasio and Shavers II. He was decked in the opening round by Ruddock, but came back in an exciting fight to win in six. Down three times for an automatic TKO against Bentt.

So in a 52 fight career, Tommy was decked 11 times, multiple times in three bouts. He was also easily wobbled countless time, but absorbed good shots from Foreman without flinching, being fully ready and superbly conditioned for George. He got up to win in two of those matches. He disputed the allegations of having a glass jaw on camera, but it did make for exciting bouts. He could just as quickly produced a stoppage as getting stopped himself.