Heavyweights: Joe Frazier/George Foreman vs Earnie Shavers

[elmersalsa]

this two matchups have a look of a knockout. The outcome? It does not matter. It won't be boring matches but full of action while they last.

[elmersalsa]

Who wins?

[dempseyfire]

Both Frazier and Foreman knockout Shavers. Earnie could possibly drop Joe early but unlike Foreman won't keep him there.

[gilgamesh]

Both Frazier and Foreman knockout Shavers. Earnie could possibly drop Joe early but unlike Foreman won't keep him there.

My thoughts exactly

[HomicideHenry]

Earnie didn't have the best of chins, or the best conditioning. He also was prone to cuts, etc. I see George landing the most often and stopping Shavers inside of two-three rounds.

[elmersalsa]

Earnie Shavers fought almost all the top fighters of the heavyweight division, except for Frazier and Foreman. Did he fight Jimmy Ellis?

[elmersalsa]

But Earnie could hit hard as a mule. I agree that he would have lost to both of them. But I do not discard a lucky punch by Shavers. Anything can happen.

[SenorPipino]

Earnie Shavers fought almost all the top fighters of the heavyweight division, except for Frazier and Foreman. Did he fight Jimmy Ellis?

In June of 1973, at MSG.
Ellis had Shavers in deep, deep trouble early in the first round, but Earnie launched a desperation uppercut to knockout Ellis.
Shavers exhibited his shakey chin almost immediately in the Ellis fight, and it's hard to believe he could withstand the bombs of a prime Foreman or Frazier. Sure he could land his own bomb like he did with Ellis, but the overall better skills and much better chins of Foreman and Frazier make them the very likely winners.

[The Great John L]

It's likely that everyone will say that Earnie loses to both of them, but Joe was susceptible to an uppercut and nobody threw a harder UC than Earnie. And George was a sucker for anyone who had the guts to throw a lead right, which Earnie also did well. If Lyle could bounce George around, it's hard a stretch to envision Earnie doing the same thing.

I'd favor George over Earnie prime of prime, although an upset would hardly be shocking. I think Joe would have gone down and either not gotten back up, or would have been saved by the ref. In a rematch, I'd give a slight edge to a more mobile Frazier being able to take Earnie into the middle rounds before scoring a TKO over an exhausted Shavers.

And I see there's the usual fantasy comments about Earnie's chin. He was stopped a lot, but other than the Quarry fight, every instance was an exhausted fighter getting dropped, and Quarry had to hit him about 30 times before Shavers went down. Try to name a single time when Earnie went down from one or two shots where he wasn't exhausted. If anything Earnie had a very good chin. it's his lack of stamina that failed him.

[The Great John L]

Earnie Shavers fought almost all the top fighters of the heavyweight division, except for Frazier and Foreman. Did he fight Jimmy Ellis?

In June of 1973, at MSG.
Ellis had Shavers in deep, deep trouble early in the first round, but Earnie launched a desperation uppercut to knockout Ellis.
Shavers exhibited his shakey chin almost immediately in the Ellis fight, and it's hard to believe he could withstand the bombs of a prime Foreman or Frazier. Sure he could land his own bomb like he did with Ellis, but the overall better skills and much better chins of Foreman and Frazier make them the very likely winners.

Yes, and Frazier was shaken up by Ron Stander, and Foreman was stopped by Ali and dropped and wobbled by Young, so I guess that means they had shaky chins as well.

When you fight a lot of fights against good fighters, just about every fighter get wobbled on occasion.

[SenorPipino]

Shavers chin was ordinary at best. Much of his career he fought low-level guys. He was hurt numerous times in big fights. Even an exhausted, aging Ali almost had him out.
Almost Ko'd by Ellis early, and then stopped quickly by Quarry. In don't think exhaustion played a role in those 2 fight, both of the one round variety.
He would never have lived with Foreman and Frazier, whether he was taken out by exhaustion or his chin.