Earnie Shavers(sparring partners of)

[muray]

Back in 1936, my friend Henry Cooper, Brooklyn heavyweight was thrown out of Max Schmeling's camp for making Schmeling look bad in preparing for Joe Louis.

[Caractacus]

He never did win the Heavyweight Championship of the world.
But here the names of some of his sparring partners and other boxers he sparred with a least once.(source WELCOME TO THE BIG TIME)

Mac Foster(Main Street Gym,L.A -1971,
Shavers dazed Foster then he left)
Ray Anderson
Don Taylor(1971)
Dave Matthews(Rondo fight-1972)
Larry Holmes(Gleason's Gym for Ellis fight 1973)
Jeff Merrit(for Quarry fight-1973)
Roy"Tiger"Williams(for Lyle fight 1975)
Howard Smith(1977)
Michael Dokes(ca.1979)
Terry Nicopolis(for Holmes II-1979)
Calvin Langston "
Phil Brown "

I was looking through the book the other day.
The very first person that Earnie Shavers ever sparred with was a local Golden Gloves HW Champion named John Henry.
The first day that Shavers stepped into the West Federal YMCA gym to try and learn to box (January.3.1967) in Youngstown Ohio.
Shavers sparred with him for two rounds and knocked him across the ring.
He faced John Henry again 2 weeks later in an amateur tournament and won.
He also sparred with his boxing trainer Bob Saffold at his gym in Warren Ohio.
Intersting enough future HW contender Randy Stephens also was being trained by Bob Saffold at the time at the same gym
( Shavers was 22 and Stephens about 14 )
and in a later interview with Earnie Shavers
Shavers said it was when Ken Norton knocked out Randy Stephens that Shavers asked Stephens if he wanted him to 'take care of it"
and asked for a fight with Ken Norton where he knocked him out in the first round to avenge Stephens loss.
(although curiously Shavers didn't mention this in his autobiography for some reason )

[bwu]

I recall the late trainer Macka Foley talking about being a sparring partner for Shavers. I believe he said he got knocked down by Shavers each day and got knocked out once a week.

[Tony1244]

..jeff merrit was told when he was a sparring partner not to hit shavers on the chin. merrit then hit him on the chin and broke his jaw.

don't recall what match shavers was training for..but i think it was a fight with ron stander. merrit got the match instead...and he scored a kayo..I was there and saw it. i thought merrit was going to go far..but problems outside the ring kept him from doing so.

'Candy Slim' Merrritt, he of the easily-pleased disposition:

'All I need is a hit of heroin, a couple of bitches on the street, and a can of tuna'

All this time I was looking toward Homer, The Bible, Twain, and the great present day songwriters for great quotes when Merrit summed it all up beautifully.

[Caractacus]

Here is some rare footage of Earnie Shavers shadow boxing and sparring.
This footage appears to be from June.12. 1973 when the fight was originally scheduled for
July.25.1973 before the fight was post-poned for December.14.1973.
BTW Does that look like Jeff Merritt that Shavers is sparring with in that clip ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21RxcLGtzVU

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

Ken Boutwell sparred with Shavers
when Shavers was training for a fight with Phil Clinard in 1982.
( scroll down to see some older newspaper photos)
https://kenboutwell.com/pictures/

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

yeah, that is kind of strange.
i was reading the book about Boxing Trainers and in the chapter on Richie Giachetti,
he mentions that he was Earnie Shavers trainer (along with Tiger Brown)
when Don King bought Shavers contract in early 1973.
At some point Don King also hired Archie Moore to train Shavers for the original
date of Shavers vrs Quarry for June 1973, which was postponed because of Jeff Merrit
sparring session (whom Giachetti had also been training)
there was also another trainer by the name of burl Charity,
who supposedly taught shavers the uppercut that knocked out Jimmy Ellis,
but he quit when Archie Moore came aboard.
Richie Giachetti again took over as trainer for the re-schedule December 1973 date with Quarry.