Shavers, though, only faced one great champion anywhere close to their prime in his career --- that man was Holmes, & he was thoroughly, utterly schooled --- to the point of humiliation. The Holmes-Shavers bouts is like the Tunney-Dempsey affairs. Everyone seems to remember that one great moment (& they were genuinely great, to be fair) both Dempsey & Shavers had, but their opponents literally tormented them for every minute of every round outside of those incidents.Robinson wrote:Either way you look at it. Cooney in 1981-82 was a very real and very
credible contender and I doubt any great past or present would have
taken him lightly. After the fact we saw him lose interest and spiral into
uncertain standings, but his only losses were to 3 HW champions.
His wins on the way to Holmes were mostly over the hill names, certainly,
he did however decimate those that were before him leading up to that
fight.
I do not think that either Cooney or Shavers were 'extremely limited'.
I think both were well schooled fighters, both had as mentioned tremendous
power, both employed their strengths well, and did their best to protect
their weaknesses (exposed chins when going for the kill, and lack of long
term stamina which is common with most fast twitch athletes).
The fact remains that both guys would give a lot of champions trouble and
would be credible wins to any champion, especially at the stage of the
careers that both men were at when they fought Holmes.
Between them, & spanning some forty-plus rounds, Dempsey & Shavers might've won a combined three, maybe four rounds against Tunney & Holmes.
I don't think Shavers represents anywhere near the threat history records him as being. His flaws were deep, wide & never corrected. Ditto for Cooney.
