Earnie Shavers' favourite KO ... and strategy discussion.

[Ben Bolt]

Earnie Shavers in a recent interview with Boxing News.

Shavers, who scored an astonishing 69 early wins in a 75-14-1 pro ledger, has one favourite knockout:

"The one over Jimmy Young in 1973. He was a real slick fighter but Joe Frazier, who I'm still good friends with today, told me how to handle Jimmy. I adopted the tactics Joe said and I hit Jimmy clean and stopped him in the third round."

"That was the first time I fought Jimmy. I fought him again in 1974 and this time I went by my own strategy."
Earnie smiles: "I got a 10-round draw."

[Wild Blue Yonda]

Young was a total greenhorn when Shavers clocked him. The fight is completely discountable, and Young proved as much when he returned a seasoned fighter to completely overwhelm Shavers in their second bout. Im not surprised Shavers is still smiling about that, "draw." You never saw anyone so happy as he when they announced the decision that evening.

[Mugwump]

It's a pity Shavers was born into such a tough decade of boxers. In any other he'd have made a household name for himself.

As an aside, I regularly used to see Earnie working on the doors of Yates' in Liverpool. A bunch of us used to head over twice a week after night school and he'd be there with a smile and that big belly laugh.

There'd always be a group of boxing fans standing nearby and he'd never fail to entertain with stories of his exploits. The one guy he had a bad word for was Don King, who he thought was a cancer at the heart of the sport.

Just about everyone knew it would be suicidal to cause trouble when Earnie was on the door. Even the hoods called him "Mr. Shavers". Although I do recall one kid thinking he was Rocky Balboa. He'd hit his girlfriend and then kicked up a fuss when he was asked to leave. Next minute a gigantic hand came down on his shoulder from behind. Earnie said something along the lines of "It's time for you to go, kid". The guy gave him a mouthful of smack and the room went totally quiet. Everyone exchanged nervous glances - as if we were about to see a public execution. But Earnie just laughed, "Don't be silly, son" and the next minute he was out the door.

Pure comedy gold.

[Ben Bolt]

Even the hoods called him "Mr. Shavers".

Nice reading.
Noticed that Earnie's work at the bar also is mentioned in his wiki biography:
"Amongst other things, Earnie also works in Liverpool in the UK, as nightclub security at a Yates' bar, where he is very much respected."