If earnie shavers had come along around the start of the 1950 s how would he have done. He never cracked it in the 70s meeting a faded Ali, giving him a tough fight but losing on points then knocking down a prime Holmes before been stopped. But how would he fare against a ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe and the rock. Would he have laid the bomb on Charles, knocked out Walcott or destroyed marciano?? How would he fare against the 50s contender s, archie Moore, Don cockell, lastarza and even a Joe Louis in his last fight s,?
Shavers could bomb, but had a shaky chin, and could "gas" in the middle rounds. Jerry Quarry had the blueprint to beat Shavers, so from the list you named he could beat Don Ckell, Lastarza, maybe Charles & Louis early, but The Rock, Jersey Joe, and the Hvywt version of Archie Moore would k.o. Shavers in 6-10 rounds.
No. He would have won some and lost some, just like in his own time. To all of his losses would have been against the best and brightest of the era either.
See it very similar myself. The fridge contenders he probably beats knocks out but has the quality of opposition gets better shavers starts to lose. Jersey Joe provided he's on form beats him on points, Charles out works him and marciano survive s a scary knock down to batter earnie in the later rounds. Archie Moore would stop him but may be hurt several times. Unfortunately at this point for Joe Louis it may be a sad painful loss
He would have still packed a wallop in that era but he would have been smaller with less musculature. Bob Satterfield comes to mind but I know that's not an ideal comparison. It's all speculation when it comes to eras. By the way, I've always looked at Earnie's fight with Quarry as an anomaly. Jerry was already dealing with drug/head demons in their Dec. 73 fight and a scant 3 months later, Joe Alexander almost had him out at the end of the 2nd followed by the brutal rematch with Joe in June 74 that may have done more to accelerate his dementia then any of his fights. I remember Jerry looking over at Joe Louis asking him to stop that one.
Shavers demolishes everyone but walcott, charles, and possibly rocky. Remember, shavers had been in there with some big heavies (larry, lyle, roy williams) and looked very good and impressive. With an 80' reach and weighing in the 210ish range hed be a giant in the 50's and could impose his will (not to mention hos devastating power). However if h was born in that era hed still have the same problems. The stamina he showed in the ali and holmes fights was something new and unexpected. Unless he learns to pace himself better hed still srugle with the best. However i see all of them as winnable fights, even against rocky, if he can land a bomb and get them out of there.
He establishes himself as a contender but doesn't become champion. Earnie's inconsistency made him too unreliable to favor him to stand out in any era
Rocky never fought an elite heavyweight puncher, or at least one that could still land his best punch. And Rocky got hit... a lot. Shavers, being as elite a puncher as the division ever witnessed, would have a decent chance to end things early unless we are to believe that Rocky had the greatest chin in the history of the division and was simply impervious to any sort of heavyweight punch unless delivered by ancient opponents.
Come to think of it if he came around towards the end of the decade he'd have a good punchers chance against guys like Patterson, Johannson, Machen, Williams, Folley, etc. I don't think hed be lucky enough to beat all of them but I'm fairly confident he'd beat "some".
Was there anyone as good as Ron Stander and Bob Stallings in the 1950s ? If not, Shavers probably goes undefeated.
