Having thought on this and poured back through Shavers career, I have to disagree with any assessment that Shavers was a "poor" closer. He may not have been the best closer, but he was definitely not a poor closer.
I believe most assessments of Shavers as a poor closer are based mainly on two fights -- Shavers vs. Holmes, Shavers vs. Lyle. I do recall a third fight later in Shavers career in which he had Bernado Mercado, a big young South American HW, in deep trouble, but didn't get him out of there and eventually lost. BrocktonBluster also references Shavers not having KO'd Quick Tillis, to which I might add neither did a rising young Mike Tyson.
Also, no one on this forum seems to recall that the right hand Shavers put Holmes down with happened very late in the round. That Holmes got up at all is pretty amazing in itself, but he only had to survive maybe 10 or 12 more seconds. That, to me, doesn't make a very strong argument against Shavers ability to close.
The only thing, in my opinion, that prevented Shavers from being an all-time closer to go with his all-time punching power was that he got too anxious and wreckless when he had a guy hurt, looking to land another bomb when, in fact, landing anything at all would have probably done the trick.
Quarry vs Shavers
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 4900
- Joined: 29 May 2005, 00:32
I think it was the 9th round that he floored Tillis...BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:kingpawn, he floored quick with a right hand in the 2nd and tillis got up at 9 completely groggy but shavers couldnt finish him. tillis was a lot more hurt than when mike tyson floored him.
...and remember Earnie was about 38 by this fight! 
8) 
Whatever ... Shavers lost to Tillis in his 79th fight. Dude had seen his better days by that time. Wouldn't you agree with that?BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:kingpawn, he floored quick with a right hand in the 2nd and tillis got up at 9 completely groggy but shavers couldnt finish him. tillis was a lot more hurt than when mike tyson floored him.
Earnie Shavers had more career wins (73) than most active fighters today will ever even step in the ring -- and 67 of those 73 wins were stoppages (that's 92 percent). If you like, you can argue and say that many of those stoppages were against low level competition, and then we can drag out the records of other great punchers and see how many of their KOs were against the same.
Bottom line is three or four failures to finish in a career that included 67 successes at it ...
Damn, dude, you're really picking on a few amonst the many.
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 4900
- Joined: 29 May 2005, 00:32
ur right silkov, i was thinking of when shavers floored lyle in the 2nd, thats most likely why i put it. my mistake.
shavers was way past his prime in that fight.
did anyone ever see shavers fight with brian yates?????
he was 50 and was knocked out by a complete bum that would have not had even gotten into the ring with shavers in his prime.
shavers was way past his prime in that fight.
did anyone ever see shavers fight with brian yates?????
he was 50 and was knocked out by a complete bum that would have not had even gotten into the ring with shavers in his prime.