The brutal power of Earnie Shavers.

[Mugwump]

That's interesting. Cobb's punches didn't look like they could crack an egg in that fight (an exaggeration, but they really didn't look that hard).

It was a body punch that broke two ribs. Quite badly too. Multiple fractures - not a hairline or a clean break.

He said he never felt a punch as hard as that - from anyone.

[nomadman]

It was a body punch that broke two ribs. Quite badly too. Multiple fractures - not a hairline or a clean break.

He said he never felt a punch as hard as that - from anyone.

Understandable, given that bones were broken. Briggs suffered a broken orbital bone, a broken nose and I think a broken cheekbone from Vitali which might have led to him saying what he said. I sometimes wonder to what extent such injuries might cloud one's judgement regarding the power of their opponent's punches, since I'd guess that you're more likely to remember damage like that sustained over a long period of time than you are if your lights are just put out with one shot.

[nomadman]

Just to return to the topic for a moment:

Whilst I think Shavers's one hit power was overstated, one thing which I think gets underrated, or perhaps overlooked, is his rather good combination punching. He was extremely adept at mixing it up to both body and head, and would come at you from both sides and from all angles. He had a brutal left body shot/overhand right that often caught a lot of opponents out, and which accounted for a good degree of his success. If he found you hurt or against the ropes he'd constantly club you to the body with hard right hooks, which had the effect of lowering your guard to his big bombs upstairs.

I also consider his left hook to be one of the better hooks, power wise, the division has seen. People talk about how crazy Holmes was to get up from the big right that Earnie landed on him in their second fight, but I'm personally more flabbergasted at how Lyle got up from that killer left that dropped him in the second. Lyle looked totally out of it, the way Izon looked against Tua.

Unforntunately Shavers's power and technique dropped way off once he lost his steam, but in the early rounds he was a bad dude.

[them_apples]

Of course this has to factor into the argument, but IMO people put too much stock into what fighters say and don't pay enough attention to what actually went on in the fight. Briggs said that Vitali hit harder than Foreman and Lennox, Botha said that Mighty Mo (a kickboxer) hit harder than Tyson. In both cases I find their claims hard to believe. Do I think they're lying? Not necessarily, but in the case of Briggs, Big Vit was hitting him with flush shots all night and didn't put him down once. Lennox stopped him. How does that work?

With Shavers you have such a large number of fighters saying similar things about his power, which lends more weight to the claim, but the fact still remains that Ali, Holmes, Lyle, Tillis and Cobb all survived his best shots and went on to beat him. And in Norton's case I'd wager good money that Cooney hit him a darn sight harder than Shavers did. He certainly had him in a much worse state and did so with fewer punches. I don't doubt that Shavers hit them all pretty damn hard for them to say such things about him in the first place, but I simply can't square their words with the evidence of my own eyes. Expecially in Holmes's case, Tyson dropped him with an almost identical shot to the one that put him down against Shavers. The difference was that Tyson went on to get the stoppage where Shavers did not (and for anyone that wants to bring up Larry's age here, bear in mind that this was the only time he was ever stopped, and that he went on to fight at a high level for another decade more).

I'll always bear in mind what fighters have to say about another fighter's power and take it into consideration when forming my opinion. But I'll never let it be the sole decider. And without the quotes I find that Shavers really doesn't have a strong enough body of stoppages to convince me that he was one of the hardest punchers of all time. Though I do admit that he has a ton of really exciting knockouts.

yo be fair though, accuracy has a lot to do with it. Although I don't doubt Vitali is a heavy puncher, I don't believe his claims. He tooks Vitalis best shots all night long and actually at times didn't seem to care. He ran like Hell from Foreman. Got stopped by Lewis.

but like I said, accuracy had a lot to do with it. Almost everyone in the 90's said Foreman hit them the hardest. Only difference is, you saw his punches coming and often enough took them on the forehead or side of the head rather than the chin.

Watching shavers, he does look like a very very hard puncher. When you have sparred you tend to notice things that cannot be explained. Shavers does look like he packs a huge wallop.

[Ascended]

Overrated from outdated quotes that mean nothing mutiple hws hit way harder