Shaver's Punching Power Is Completely Overrated.

[nomadman]

The T.S. takes the word of Briggs who is an over-rated HW that never lived to his potential to Ali and Holmes that fought legit competition and were conditioned to fight 15 rounds. On top of that Vitali is no where as active as the boxers of the 70s

Why shouldn't he take his word? Does Briggs have a history of lying or contradicting himself? If not, then his word's as good as any other.

[TheGreatA]

No offense to Briggs but he may have forgotten how hard Lennox Lewis hit over the past 10 years. Lewis swept the floor with him while Vitali was never able to put Briggs on the canvas despite beating him to a bloody pulp. And that was when Briggs was actually in his prime.

[Blue Mercury]

Your ****in kidding right?

[TheGreatA]

Shavers flattened a ton of guys, but only his most notable fights are on film. Among those who felt his power:

Jimmy Young was sent to the canvas in both of their fights (the only knockdowns Young suffered in his career).

Ellis was KO'd in the first (Ellis was known for having a decent chin).

Ron Lyle was knocked down in the second round and appeared out, but the bell saved him. Shavers proceeded to run out of gas in a poor attempt to finish.

Muhammad Ali was repeatedly rocked with punches that he said were the hardest he had ever been hit with immediately after the fight.

The durable Henry Clark was demolished in two. Top ranked heavyweight prospect Howard Smith was demolished in two. Joe Bugner was beaten in two rounds. Was dropped in the first by the hard-hitting Jeff Sims, and came back to KO him in the 5th.

Nearly KO'd in the 10th round by Roy "Tiger" Williams, rocks him with a right hand and finishes him off.

Ken Norton, coming off a SD loss to Holmes for the title, was KO'd in one round.

Larry Holmes was dropped and nearly knocked out with a right hand out of nowhere after dominating Shavers for 6 rounds.

Dropped James Tillis like a sack of grain despite being ancient. Hit Bernardo Mercado so hard his glove came apart.

The guy could punch, obviously. He wasn't a brilliant boxer and often did not land flush, but it got the job done for the most part.

[JAB5239]

No offense to Briggs but he may have forgotten how hard Lennox Lewis hit over the past 10 years. Lewis swept the floor with him while Vitali was never able to put Briggs on the canvas despite beating him to a bloody pulp. And that was when Briggs was actually in his prime.

On top of this he was getting hit with broken bones in his face which would compound the impact he was feeling.

[nomadman]

Disrespectful post here. You're in idiot, and this thread is awful. Earnie Shavers had 69 KOs in 75 wins. Ali said Shavers hit him the hardest, and keep in mind Ali fought Foreman, Frazier and Liston. How the **** could you even say Shannon Briggs would know better than Ali? Are you a moron?

See, this is the problem with taking one boxer's word over another. It invariably boils down to not what you consider the truth of the matter to be but whether or not what they say squares with what you believe. I prefer to ignore what boxers say entirely regarding their opinions of their opponents, in favour of what my own eyes tell me. Less BS that way.

You say this thread is awful. It might not be as good as it could have been, mainly due to a series of disrespectful, lazy, nonsensical or nationalistic posts, but the basic premise is sound. Why shouldn't established beliefs ever be challenged? This is a discussion forum, right? Does someone questioning Earnie Shavers's punching power undermine the very bedrock of your existence or something?

Don't agree with the guy? Then either don't respond or else construct a counter-argument to the best of your abilities. Don't flame, ridicule, scoff or sneer. So far only a handful of posters have managed to respond to the TS in a reasoned and decent manner. Everyone else has responded in the knee-jerk foaming at the mouth luddite fashion that I expect wouldn't have been too out of place at a witch trial in the 1600s.

But just to address one other of your points, re KO ratios. At one time Big Vit had the highest KO to win ratio of any heavyweight champion in history at 97%. Even now it's still one of the highest of all time. Does this fact alone mean he's one of the hardest punchers ever? Not at all. Not when a significant portion of his opponents sustained multiple punches throughout the course of the fight and either quit on their stools or were waved off by the referee whilst still on their feet. Shavers has a similar number of such stoppages, which I believe was one of the TS's main points.

Shavers's ability to win fights inside the distance can't be questioned. The conclusions to be drawn from that, however, can.

[nomadman]

No offense to Briggs but he may have forgotten how hard Lennox Lewis hit over the past 10 years. Lewis swept the floor with him while Vitali was never able to put Briggs on the canvas despite beating him to a bloody pulp. And that was when Briggs was actually in his prime.

Well, no offense to Holmes but he may have forgotten that Tyson knocked him out whilst Shavers only knocked him down. Must have been that pesky concussion.

[F l i c k e r]

I notice that no one has been able to post that vid I asked for. I suspect because it doesn't exist.

Which leads me to an interesting question: just why is Shavers so renowned as a one-punch knockout artist when he clearly doesn't have the body of KOs to prove it? One punch knockdowns yes. Accumulation stoppages yes. One punch knockouts? *sound of crickets chirping*

Shavers one and only one-punch KO of note is his win over Jimmy Ellis. That's it. And that somehow translates into "greatest one-punch knockout puncher in the history of boxing"???

What the hell?

It's called following the leader.

One person says something enough times until other people start believing it to be true, so they follow in line with it. Then so many people believe in it for so long till the point where majority believe in it and don't dare question or have another opinion just so they can sound smart or fall in line with it. poet is the perfect example of this.

anyways, i like your daring to question the masses. Not many people here do it for fear of flame and red k. But you did. I dig that.

[TheGreatA]

Well, no offense to Holmes but he may have forgotten that Tyson knocked him out whilst Shavers only knocked him down. Must have been that pesky concussion.

In this case Holmes was actually in his prime against Shavers, not a 38 year old guy looking to cash in. The opposite for Briggs.

People may criticize Shavers for not KO'ing Ali or Holmes but what if he had? Think it over for a moment. A limited slugger like him KO'ing two of the greatest? It's a huge accomplishment that he even came close to accomplishing that feat.

Tyson had a bit more than just power with which he managed to catch up to old Larry. Bit of a different look to the finishing combinations compared to Shavers's old strategy of throwing one hailmary bomb after another.

[Forza]

He is hardly top 10 hardest HW puncher. Where are the 1 punch K.O's? Jimmy ellis? Frazier flattened him in his prime. Even a broken down 34 year old floyd patterson schooled him.

He dropped holmes with a nice shot, but the fact remains holmes got right back up and continued fighting.

Ali was not hard to stagger/wobble. The guy got knocked down by chuck wepner for christ sakes.