Shavers now lives in Liverpool and he laughed when reminded of that crazy 1973 KO-fest.  “Well I knew Jimmy [Ellis] couldn’t take punches to the body because Ali had told me, ‘Earnie hit him in the body because he doesn’t eat the right food and isn’t looking after himself’,” revealed Shavers.  “But I hit him on the chin anyway.  I punched so hard I never really took chances by punching to the body.”

Earnie shook his head when recalling his 1973 fight calendar.  “Back then we didn’t make the money these guys make so we needed to get the money and the experience,” he explained.  “I went into the fight with Quarry with a few managerial problems but Jerry was a very good fighter himself.”

Shavers’ career high water mark was 1979’s first-round KO win over Ken Norton, who suffered at the hands of a few big hitters in his long and illustrious career.  Shavers believes that he had shaken Norton’s belief during the pre-fight weigh in. 

“I went over to him, shook his hand and said, ‘Norton I am going to destroy you!’  He said we were both going to make money but I told him, ‘I’m going to be the only guy that will remember it!’  Norton didn’t like punchers.”

Still, the Norton fight was arguably Shaver’s biggest victory but his career highlight came at Madison Square Garden when he challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship of the world in 1977.  Everything came together that night: the occasion, the place and the opponent made it a perfect night for Shavers.

“In America, when you walk into a gym your dream is to become champion of the world and fight in the Mecca of boxing.  The fight with Ali was the pinnacle.  That made my whole career.  Fighting Ali in the Garden,” he smiled. 

Shavers, a notorious late-fader, had worried about his ability to last the full championship distance.  “I did have those fifteen rounds in the back of my mind so didn’t go for it when I had Ali hurt in the second round”, admitted Shaver, “if you get Ali hurt you go for it because he was such a wise fighter.”

Indeed, Ali had the scoring relayed to him at various points in the fight, ensuring that he knew when to up his ante; conversely, Shavers’ corner had not taken this step.  Earnie, though, was philosophical when reminded of this turn of events.

“No!” thundered Shavers when asked if he could have stolen the decision if he had been able to second-guess the judges.  “It would have been nice to have been given the same opportunity by my corner as all it needed was for them to do their job while I was doing mine but Ali was the master.”

Shavers’ next, and final, shot came against Ali’s successor Larry Holmes, who had defused Shavers in a 1978 title eliminator.  This time, though, Shavers caught Holmes with a huge, seemingly fight-ending overhand right that floored the champion in round seven of their 1979 rematch; Holmes regrouped and hammered the fight out off Shavers.  “Holmes went down heavy”, laughed Shavers when reminded of that big punch, “but he got up mad!”  

Mixing it with the best of his own generation means that Shavers can cast a critical eye over recent heavyweight greats, or so-called greats.  Firstly, Shavers believes that Lennox Lewis would have been out of his depth during the 1970’s.

He said: “Manny Steward was a top guy so Lennox would not have been the fighter he was if it wasn’t for Steward.  If he fought in the seventies, well we had so many good fighters that would be champions now and Lennox’d have been an ordinary guy in the seventies.”

Shavers believes that Tyson, the scourge of the late-eighties and early-nineties, became enamoured by his own reputation and had suffered as a result of this mindset.  “You see, all the problems Tyson had came about because of himself and the way he treats people.  We was taught differently back then in the fight game, we was told treat people well but Mike wants to be the hard guy from New York,” claimed Shavers.

“In the fight game if you do a thousand things right and one thing bad they’ll talk about the bad thing, now Tyson has done a thousand things that are bad!  But now the people around him are gone, Mike has become a good guy.  Everyone wanted to get into Tyson’s pockets and didn’t care about him. 

“It’s a shame because Tyson could have been a decent guy if he’d had a good entourage around him.  Mike is not a bad guy; he is a really nice guy when he is steered in the right direction.  He came out of hardcore New York and some rough neighbourhoods.  Mike still has a big name and can do good things.”

Earnie also had some words of advice for another star of that underrated late-1990’s/early-00’s heavyweight scene, he believes that the time has come for Evander Holyfield to finally hang up his gloves.  “He’s been in a lot of tough fights,” declared Shavers.  “Those fights will take a toll on him.  Evander has too big a heart.  He needs to retire.”

Jaded by memories of glory days gone by, Shavers barely keeps up with the current heavyweight crop; however, there was one heavyweight scrap that Shavers was keen to discuss, his aborted role as Clubber Laing in the third Rocky film.

“Yes, I was up for that role but Stallone wanted me to make it look real by throwing big punches at him.  I hit him so hard they thought no one would buy the story!  But Stallone is a nice guy and very, very sharp,” claimed Shavers.

Previous heavyweight boxers have claimed that the road to the world title during the 1970’s and 80’s involved a deal with Don King; however, for all his flaws Don made things happen in boxing back then and Earnie seemed happy with the role King played in his own career.

He declared: “Don opened big doors for me.  Don and his wife are really good people, when I retired he took good care of me.  To be successful in life you have to put in a thousand percent - Don puts in two thousand percent!  Don is no different from any other fight promoter.  He makes money for his fighters.  If you get one hundred thousand but your promoter takes fifty thousand why not go with Don who could get you eight million but takes two million - you’ve still got six million!
 
“You have to understand that I came from a poor family in the Deep South.  I had hoped to become a pro-footballer to get myself a chance of a better life but it turned out to be boxing that gave me that chance.  My mother had taught me well to prepare me for my future career.  She taught me how to treat people, be fair, not to use people and she gave me good basic rules.”

Shavers is a practising Christian, he draws his values from his mother’s counsel and believes that this influence was also true of his idol, Muhammad Ali.  “My mother was a Christian”, he explained, “Ali’s mother was a Christian.  I knew most of the guys’ mothers very well and they were very much like my mother: good, strong, positive influences on the family.  The fathers [we had] may not have been that good, Ali’s included, but our mothers were a positive influence on the family.”

Earnie believes in the maintenance of Christian values without the loss of personal autonomy; he feels that people should be encouraged to help themselves and then be spiritually assisted in their chosen course.

“If you give someone a million dollars what will they do?  The will spend it!  You need to earn from that kind of money.  My mother came up in the depression so she never had money but if I gave her a million she wouldn’t spend a dime, she was save, save, save!,” he declared. 

“People need to be working hard.  They need to be nurtured so that they find their own discipline because that is what will give them a good life down the line.  If one person asks you for money and you give it to them the next thing you know five hundred people will be asking you for money, sooner or later you end up broke.  God puts these tough decisions in your path to test your resolve.  If you buy a mansion it costs a lot to buy the place but it also costs five times more to run it!  So you need a constant supply of money.” 

He added: “Seriously, God takes care of you if you are fair to others.  For example, I once stayed at this big mansion belonging to a friend and they thought I was crazy because I tipped the maid all the time but if someone is doing a hard job they should be rewarded for their work.  It is funny because when I first came over here I was tipping the girl at the checkout in the supermarket, no one told me that you guys don’t do that!”

“You British are funny with money.  If someone offers it to you you say, ‘Are you sure?’  In the States we’d take the money!” he laughed, before stating that his new philosophy is a million times removed from his ‘kill or be killed’ in-ring approach.

“I like to think that I was nice to people in life and God saw that in my heart.  Being nice to someone costs you nothing but it can be such a precious thing.  I like to smile and say ‘hello’ to people because it is good to spread some happiness around the world.  I only think about good things because I know that God is good to me,” he declared.

“I hope to live a long life through virtue and faith.  Although boxing was a dangerous sport I swore that when I retired I’d keep myself out of harms way because I put in the dangerous work back then so I could be comfortable and enjoy life now. 

“I stay healthy by eating the dark fruits like raisins and prunes.  I stay young by exercising my mind as well as my body and reading as much as possible.  If you work hard to enjoy life then it would be foolish to harm yourself.  Positive thinking keeps you healthy and happy so always try to be happy and give yourself over to goodness and God, right living and faith in God enriches your life.”

Come on, Earnie, I copped for a bit of criticism when mentioning religion in an Amir Khan fight report, now we’re veering off into Christianity, financial management and the benefits of a prune and raisin diet, how about another boxing anecdote?

“The devil was my toughest opponent because you can never see him,” answered Shavers when asked about his toughest in-ring opponent.  “Satan is always present in the world but I have God in my heart and in my mind so nothing can trouble me.”

However, Shavers did promise to let me in on the secret of a punchers mystique.  Earnie tapped his temple, looked over his shoulder and then motioned me in.  “Speak to your opponent at the weigh in.  Start a sentence but don’t finish it,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper.  With that in mind all that needs to be said is …

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