Greatest Hits of Earnie Shavers, The Black Destroyer
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Great heavyweights have their moment in the sun. Between 1969 and 1995, Earnie Shavers terrorized the heavyweight division, including torturing World Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali for 15 rounds with punches which would have woken the dead. Generally regarded as the hardest hitting heavyweight of all-time in his prime, “The Black Destroyer”, Earnie Shavers, who Muhammad Ali called “The Acorn” was memorable. His highlight reel monster shots made their mark on the heavyweights of his era.
Shavers, 74-14-1 with 68 knockouts, Warren, Ohio, frightened the opposition with his bald head and his monster power shot bombs. Shavers claimed a sixth-round thumb from Larry Holmes in their rematch caused a detached left retina. While surgically repaired subsequently, Shavers was never quite the same fighter after that moment, in stamina, heart, determination drive, and vision. While his career had its ups and downs, the world heavyweight title simply eluded him. He knocked down Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, James Tillis, and knocked out Jimmy Ellis and Jimmy Young. Shavers lost to Jerry Quarry, Ron Stander, Bob Stallings, Ron Lyle, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes (twice),Bernardo Mercado, Randy Tex Cobb, James Tillis, Walter Santemore, George Chaplin, Brian Yates, and drew with Jimmy Young in a rematch).
Shavers still won a great deal of fights, 74 to be exact, with 68 knockouts. Shavers won 10 round decisions over ex-world champion Vicente Rondon, Ali Haakim, Rahim Muhammad, and Henry Clark (who Shavers knocked out in a rematch). Shavers actually won an eight-round majority decision at age 51 over Brian Morgan in September 1995. Shavers had technical boxing skill, though clearly this was not his forte. He went the distance with Ali and ex-sparring partner Larry Holmes the first time he fought them.
What Shavers had, as his tenth-round knockouts of Roy Williams and Rochell Norris proved, was big bang destroying power. George Foreman was good, but Shavers was electric. People watch boxing to see knockouts, and Earnie gave the public its money’s worth in his prime. His first round knockouts of Jimmy Ellis and Ken Norton were pure brutality to watch. As with many fighters, partially blind and searching to regain lost glory and more paychecks, Shavers faded in losses to Cobb, Mercado, and Chaplin. The three fights with Ali and Holmes were his most important bouts, and his failure to win any of those key bouts probably served to break his fighting spirit to a great degree. The still distinctly bald Shavers, who wrote his autobiography, and always a popular crowd pleaser, remains active today as a motivational speaker and autograph signer at age 77.
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