What was the hardest single punch delivered by Earnie Shavers?

I always thought it was the right that fractured Howard "K.O" Smith's neck and essentially ended his career.

 

I agree, I never saw anyone get hit as clean and as hard as Holmes was and come back and win.

 

Oh you like Golota? Why not Adamek or Saleta both are polish and spanked your Golota!

 

Not sure about his hardest right hand but this left hook he landed from the other side of the ring was NASTY! Not sure if he ever landed a harder one than that.

Go to 2:11

This content is protected

Cobbs chin was legendary

 

Man. Earnie up against a guy who at his same skill level? Or is maybe less skilled? That's like running face first into a Mac truck speeding toward you at 80mph. I feel bad for those men, but salute their bravery. Not like they didn't know what they were getting into.

 

Holmes has said his face has never felt right since. He says there's this knot he can feel that never goes away.

I'm convinced that at least a part of what happened to Ali was being hit by a bunch of those in his fight with Earnie. Too tough for his own good.

 

It's hard to imagine Shavers throwing a better single shot (including delivery technique) than the one that dropped Holmes in the 7th round of the rematch. He also caught Larry partially coming into to him for compound effect. If the right he caught Ali with in the second round of their fight was less, it wasn't by much - and there was also all the other flush right hands Earnie caught Ali with throughout the fight.

 

In nearly all these examples, the opponent not only got up (or didn't go down at all), but the majority of the time the opponent won.

Holmes got up and stopped Shavers. Mercado got up and stopped Shavers. Tillis got up and decisioned Shavers. Ali didn't go down and decisioned Shavers. Cobb didn't go down and stopped Shavers. Bugner got up (lost on a cut).

So, the hardest punch he landed probably wasn't any of those.

 

Me too would love to see them

 

Exactly Barrf. Have a look at his run leading up to established opposition, then have a look at how many KO's he had vs TKO's. Looking further we see he knocked a lot of these guys out early, when he was still rather FRESH. I'd give my left nut to see all his non televised KO's, even just the conclusions. Some of these punches would be terrifying.

 

Jimmy Young talking about his first fight with Earnie Shavers to Sports Illustrated.

He took Jimmy to a Police Athletic League gym and started him as an amateur fighter, a light heavyweight. Jimmy needed just 21 fights, 14 of them victories, to convince himself that he wanted to be a professional.

Young became a hungry headhunter. In his first pro heavyweight fight in 1969 he knocked out Jimmy Jones in one round. A sledgehammer had more style. Young thought that this was the only way to fight—until nine bouts later when his manager, who has since been replaced, decided that his young slugger was ready for Earnie Shavers. That was in February of 1973. Shavers came in with 44 victories, 41 of them knockouts. Young hadn't fought since a loss to Randy Neumann a year earlier.

"You'd think I'd have known better," Young says, "but I've never lacked for confidence. I actually wanted that fight; I was eager. I thought I was going to win. I guess I was overmatched. That same night Ernie Terrell was fighting the main event against some stiff. I can't remember his name. I should have been fighting Terrell's guy, and he should have been fighting Shavers. His guy went out in one round; Shavers stopped me in three. It wasn't a knockout; they just stopped it. All he did was bloody my nose."