Was the power of Earnie Shavers overrated?

[Max Power]

Earnie Shavers

A damn good Heavyweight FOR THAT TIME, who could end a fight with one-punch AGAINST BUMS AND CRUISERS HE MASSIVELY OUTSIZED ONLY!

One of the hardest hitting fighters of ONE-Time.

Fixed it for you

You cant know this. You are stating that bigger means they hit harder which is true for most people but not all. Fighters who have fought each other know how hard someone hits and it happens all the time that fighters hit harder than their size suggests. A recent example would be GGG where cruisers and light heavies he has sparred have said he hits harder than anyone they have faced. If you look at his physique he is in good shape but I wouldnt say he is in the same condition as other middleweights of present and old but Id be fairly certain he hits harder. Further, compare him to super middles of present, andre ward has a similar frame to golovkin only bigger but he doesnt hit harder.

Even transfer this to the heavyweights. Fury is a very very big heavy but he doesnt hit all that hard. A good comparison would be to David Haye. A smaller heavy. Im pretty sure Haye hits harder.

There are plenty of examples where big heavyweights dont necessarily hit that hard. Mike Perez, Kubrat Pulev, Bryant Jennings, Odlanier Solis, Manuel Charr and biggest of them all Nicolai Valuev.

There is more to how hard you hit then just how big you are. Probably the most important is technique, but then size, bone density etc all also contribute.

I highly doubt Shavers hits as hard as Klitschko or Haye but I would think he can hit harder than a lot of the current heavies who are bigger than him. Im also not an hayday hugger and think Wlad would be able to beat any heavyweight of any era but you have to look beyond just size, and more importantly you have to take note of fighters opinions rather than just completely disregard them.

I am not just considering size=power. As if I would ever make such an idiotic statement as that!

It's just that Shavers had a lot of fights which provides a very representative sample. And you can see clearly that Shavers, like almost every other boxer, his power drops significantly the heavier his opponents got, until at about the entry point for HW, his KO performance was in the neighbourhood of Chris Byrd's!

I didn't make up the numbers, they are all there.

It's only when you look at Shavers career as being equal to other guys careers that Shavers seems like a destroyer but when you analyse it closely, he FAILED to KO bigger guys!

I also focussed on quality! Shavers also failed against GOOD opposition, size irrelevant, based purely on the oppoennts record at bout.

Now I'm sure Shavers is not a weak puncher. His power was the mainstay of his success. But he certainly didn't hit hard enough to KO most modern HW's and he wasn't skilled enough to land those ridiculous punches anyway.

He is no Wlad or Haye.
He is no Peter or Stiverne.

[Silkeyjoe]

I agree. I dont think he was that good and wouldnt beat most top heavies from this era. If Wilder fails to KO Stiverne does that automatically mean his power is overrated and not good?

[Beanflicker]

I think we have to define what overrated means here. Personally, when I say Earnie Shavers' power is overrated, I just mean I don't believe he was the hardest puncher of all time. He was one of them, but I don't think he can compare to a bomber who outweighs him by 40-50lbs. It's just physics.

Saying Shavers' power was "overrated" doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't punch. He was undoubtedly one of the hardest punchers of all time.

He was a shit fighter though. No chin, no heart, no stamina, basic skills. When people talk about him beating up the top HW's of today I have to shake my fucking head. I don't think these people have watched any Shavers' fights outside of KO highlights. Anybody who watches the guy and knows a thing about boxing knows that this guy wasn't championship material in any era. He fought a washed up, 36 year old Muhammad Ali, got in the best shape of his life, and couldn't get the job done. He landed a great punch vs Holmes (Larry had gotten careless from easily winning the last 21 rounds they had fought), he couldn't close the deal, he got stopped AGAIN. Oh, and he knocked out a 36 year old washed up Ken Norton. That's what he's known for. That's why he's so great? Because he knocked down Larry Holmes and failed to beat a geriatric Ali?

[EL DINAMITA]

Exactly what Beanflicker said. I never saw anybody calling shaver's power overrated.. I just said that he is Not the hardest puncher of all time like the old timers claim.. It is not the same..

Shavers was a shitty fighter doe.. Imagine what James Toney would've done to him.. He'll Lamon Brewster would have mirked him..

[Max Power]

I agree. I dont think he was that good and wouldnt beat most top heavies from this era. If Wilder fails to KO Stiverne does that automatically mean his power is overrated and not good?

No and that's a good point.

Failing against Stiverne would not detract from his obvious power.

That's why after making the comparisons against both weight AND record (=more total quality), I often then look at performance against JUST quality and JUST weight.

We can then get a better picture through end-point analysis, whether the boxer is a big puncher but not a good boxer or a good boxer but not a big puncher also.

It could also be that Wilder might fail against Stiverne but be able to flog out most of the other top heavies, which simply would just credit Bermane for beating such a good opponent and make Deontay just a notch below Stiv in my rankings.