Boxer fought Ali for a world title and was feared as one of sport’s hardest punchers
Muhammad Ali derisively nicknamed Earnie Shavers ‘‘Acorn’’ on account of his bald head and before their world title fight in 1977 dropped a bag of them on the floor. ‘‘Acorns fall in September,’’ he declared. Ali may have been coming to the end of his career but his ‘‘trash talk’’, if not his body, was still up to the mark.
Fifteen brutal rounds later at Madison Square Garden in New York and having narrowly retained his title, Ali was wisecracking in homage to his opponent, reputed to have the hardest punch in the history of the sport. ‘‘Earnie hit me so hard it shook my kinfolk in Africa,’’ he said. In the second round
Shavers hit Ali flush with an overhand right.
The champion taunted Shavers that he was not really hurt. He was. The kidology worked. Shavers backed off momentarily. Ali survived the round. ‘‘I should have jumped on him,’’ Shavers recalled. ‘‘I regret that.’’
Shavers earned another shot at the world title by knocking out Ken Norton in the first round in Las Vegas in March 1979. Exactly two years after the Ali fight, in September 1979, the son of Alabama sharecroppers fought Larry Holmes in another superb contest. Shavers shook his opponent with some big shots in the early rounds and knocked Holmes down in the seventh, but the fight was not over. Holmes said that it was hitting the canvas that ‘‘woke me up’’. He then gave Shavers a boxing lesson and stopped him in the 11th round.
Shavers’ opponents shared a sense of honour at having survived his punches. Ron Lyle, another big hitter who in 1975 beat Shavers in one of the most brutal fights in history, said: ‘‘When he hit you, the lights went out. I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it wasn’t funny.’’
Easygoing and fun-loving with a rather high-pitched voice and relatively small for a heavyweight, Shavers seemed an unlikely candidate as the hardest puncher ever. He did not trash-talk his opponents and was vulnerable to being knocked out himself because of his weak chin. He also lacked stamina. ‘‘I used to gas out in five or six rounds because I put that much effort into my punches and it was impossible to punch for an entire fight without tiring out.’’
In many of his bouts it mattered not because he knocked out his opponents in the first or second round. And despite 89 professional fights, Shavers left boxing at the age of 51 with none of his features rearranged and having retained his mental faculties.
Earnie Shavers was born in Garland, Alabama, one of 10 children. His parents were sharecroppers and he was picking cotton from the age of 5, but life in Alabama ended abruptly when his father fell behind on instalments to pay for a mule. His debtor was
‘‘Earnie hit me so hard it shook my kinfolk in Africa.’’ Muhammad Ali speaking after his title fight with Earnie Shavers in 1977.
a local Klansman who demanded payment. Shavers Sr pulled out a gun when the farmer tried to take the animal back. Hours later a KKK lynch mob surrounded the house. By then the family had fled. They started again in Ohio, where Earnie would roam the countryside trapping weasels, raccoons and minks. His earnings helped to feed the family.
He did not start boxing until the age of 23. A friend, who was a boxer, urged him to come to the gym. Three years later Shavers won a national amateur heavyweight title and then turned professional.
He fought regularly into his late thirties and was considered for a role in the 1982 film Rocky III. Sylvester Stallone wanted a real heavyweight and invited Shavers to spar with him. Shavers respectfully kept his distance and threw out some soft jabs. Never short on machismo, Stallone shouted ‘‘C’mon Earnie, show me something real.’’ Shavers punched him once near the liver and the film star doubled up. ‘‘I went straight to the men’s room and threw up,’’ Stallone said. Shavers did not get the part.
He fought three more times after 1983, the last two bouts aged 51 in 1995. Shavers won 74 fights (68 by knockout), lost 14 and drew one. And despite claiming that for much of his career he was owned by ‘‘the Mob’’, he managed to retire with an estimated US$2 million in prize money.
Shavers retained a cult following. In the mid-1990s he was invited to give a talk in Liverpool by a young boxer called Kenny Rainford who had founded the Earnie Shavers Fan Club. Shavers promptly fell in love with Rainford’s aunt, Sue Clegg. She became his sixth wife. He relocated to Merseyside and gained employment as head bouncer at a local nightspot. He also began touring the country as an after-dinner speaker and as a born-again Christian would preach as the ‘‘Knockout Evangelist’’. He later returned to America and saw out his years in Atlanta, Georgia.
He was one of the few boxers to outsmart the notoriously slippery Don King. The promoter managed Shavers early in his career and thought he had pinned him down to a contract to fight for $5000, with much of the rest of the substantial purse going into King’s pocket. Shavers then signed a deal to fight for $20,000. King sued, but Shavers successfully argued that their contract was invalid because King had spelt his name ‘‘Ernie’’ on the contract.’’he never held it against me’’, said Shavers before breaking out into his trademark guffaw. –