Was the power of Earnie Shavers overrated?

[Spicoli]

Its Jeremy Williams I've always wondered if that was a hill to top for Peter as he went on, relying on power wise.

I think for the large part power tends to be overrated and overstated. Its who are you ko'ing...and can-are you doing it while facing adversity.

So you will bummify Jeremy Williams here to try and refute Peters power OR as you've also alluded to, try to DOWNGRADE power as a virtue altogether to cover it up AND make the claim that it matters WHO you are knocking out.

Your first point is off base because Jeremy Williams would have been one of Earnie Shavers best opponents and better than a lot of opponents who beat Earnie. In fact I think Jeremy Williams would have beaten Shavers.

Second point, Power is DEFINITELY a virtue of great magnitude. OF COURSE it is not the only thing relevant but many boxers (George Foreman, Samuel Peter, David Tua, EARNIE SHAVERS) have achieved top level with relatively little more), so obviously it is of importance, especially in the HW division!

Third point is particularly nefarious, considering Peters overall competition is approximately 100x better than the competition of Earnie Shavers was completely objectively. Samuel Peter was HW champ, there's a reason for that and Earnie never was and Earnie NEVER KNOCKED OUT A DECENT OPPONENT! With the single exception of Ken Norton who was a prolific bum buster himself, had no boxing pedigree and had a glass jaw and never even won his own title in the ring!

Its not the bummification of Williams, its simply the fact that a notorious puncher like Henry Akinwande was able to starch him with a single shot years earlier and Brian Nielson literally embarrassing him. The guy was near same weight as Shavers and showed shat stamina and a chin with the punch resistance of a Wal Mart bag full of light bulbs his entire career and between retirements. Great shot often talked about but certainly didn't make Peter the one punch ko artist he thought himself afterwards.

Power is indeed a virtue at heavy but lumping Foreman with a Tua, Shavers or even Peter is a stretch. As with Peter I think the Ruiz highlight ko was a back handed blessing for Tua. He got stuck on it and it turned out to be a one trick pony he always fell back on. Power without a delivery system, a set up, skill and discipline leaves you just throwing bricks with your eyes closed. Foreman early on had some caveman in him but damn sure developed all of the above and ran off another career with it. Tua was by all accounts the lil train that couldn't.

An off injury and rust covered Oleg Maskaev losing a trinket to Peter may be more of an indictment on the pimpification and pollution of trinkets falling out of gumball machines today rather than anything else. Are we making that Peters most significant ko while also disparaging Shavers ko of Norton with a straight face? Or would that be Jeremy Williams? Come on man