Shaver's Punching Power Is Completely Overrated.

[nomadman]

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

Yes, I would assume that to be the case. But that again brings into question the extent a fighter can be believed regarding how hard his opponent is hitting him. If anything the harder a puncher hit you the less you're going to remember because the closer you'd be to total unconsciousness. Does Briggs genuinely believe that Vitali hit him the hardest? Since he hasn't retracted his words, and has in fact added to them at a later date, then I think so. Is he mistaken? Yes, I believe so, based simply on the fact that Vitali didn't knock him out.

The same skepticism should be applied to any fighter, not because they're all a pack of inveterate liars, but because of the very nature of sport in which they're engaged.

[TheGreatA]

Hitting hard doesn't necessarily mean you knock every opponent out cold if you don't have the delivery to pull it off. Even an inferior puncher can KO an opponent if they find them flush on the chin. Foreman and Shavers both had the kind of bone-crushing power that hurt wherever they hit. Neither were known for accuracy.

[JAB5239]

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.

Wepner stepped on his foot.

[TheGreatA]

Wepner learned the trick from the great Sonny Liston, who knocked him down by stepping on his foot while throwing a body punch.



It has fooled many people since.

[$tate of Mind]

[JAB5239]

Yes, I would assume that to be the case. But that again brings into question the extent a fighter can be believed regarding how hard his opponent is hitting him. If anything the harder a puncher hit you the less you're going to remember because the closer you'd be to total unconsciousness. Does Briggs genuinely believe that Vitali hit him the hardest? Since he hasn't retracted his words, and has in fact added to them at a later date, then I think so. Is he mistaken? Yes, I believe so, based simply on the fact that Vitali didn't knock him out.

The same skepticism should be applied to any fighter, not because they're all a pack of inveterate liars, but because of the very nature of sport in which they're engaged.

......Agreed.

[nomadman]

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.

I doubt anyone is going to question that last part, but does all that alone justify his lofty status as king of the one-hitter quitters? A number of those examples you listed were knockdowns, not knockouts. A couple were accumulation stoppages, a couple more were ref stoppages. Only one, the Ellis KO, was a genuine one punch knockout. How is that any better than, say, Tyson, who routinely dropped guys with one punch, and finished them.

When I look at Shavers minus the testimonies and all the jazz I see a hard but not superhumanly powerful puncher who had the good luck to fight against the opponents that he did, but who more often than not failed to finish guys after he'd got them hurt and inevitably fell short.

[Rassclot]

ITSOVAH by brutal 1 punch KO.


Lennox has the hardest straight right in boxing history.

[Rassclot]

Greatest puncher of all time. 1 punch KO power in either hand. Uppercuts, left hooks and right straights. KO machine.

[nomadman]

Hitting hard doesn't necessarily mean you knock every opponent out cold if you don't have the delivery to pull it off. Even an inferior puncher can KO an opponent if they find them flush on the chin. Foreman and Shavers both had the kind of bone-crushing power that hurt wherever they hit. Neither were known for accuracy.

"Bone-crushing power." Yes, that's a good way to put it I think.

Shavers's punches hurt. They looked like they hurt and fighters said that they hurt. But those same fighters also took them flush wihout being knocked out in many cases. Now look at someone like Tua. How many fighters who were dropped by Tua went on to even finish the fight? I can't honestly think of a single one. And Tua wasn't a skilled fighter by any stretch of the imagination. But his punches had a sickening effect on opponents that I've rarely ever seen before. They'd just crumple up, or their heads would suddenly spring about a foot off their neck like a cartoon. What's even more impressive is that several of these guys were not only unhurt prior to the finish but were winning the fight handily and going into the later rounds.

To me Tua is everything people talk about Shavers being, a one-punch killer with fight ending power at any stage of the fight. He might not have the fancy testimonies, but he has the KOs.