Muhammad Ali -vs- Earnie Shavers 9/29/77 part 3

When the first bell rang 70m viewers were watching on NBC. More than half of all television sets in the US were showing the fight. Midway through the second round Shavers unleashed a pulverising right hand over Ali's jab, which hurt the champion badly. "Ali took a great punch, he had remarkable recuperative powers but I held back when I should have jumped on him, Shavers said. I regret that.
The pace slowed in rounds three and four. Ali danced like the Ali of old in the fifth but his legs quickly failed him and he had to rely on ring smarts and occasional flurries to build a big lead after 12 rounds. Instead of running out of steam, Shavers came on strong in the final rounds. He rocked back Ali's head with crushing right hands and the champion slumped on his stool as he returned to the corner after round 14. When the bell rang for the 15th rd
Ali could barely stand but he survived a early onslaught before launching his most unrelenting attack of the fight, firing punch after punch into the challengers head in the final minute.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• ali
• shavers
• boxing
• sports

[81carlos]

Ali was so great, even at age 36 and overweight he was able to stay a step ahead of Shavers and keep the damage to a minimum. Compare this fight with the Shavers-Holmes fights. Shavers knocked down Holmes and almost had him out when Holmes was in his prime! Ali had an iron chin and legendary ring savvy and would've destroyed Shavers and Holmes if he were five years younger.

[stel4y10]

I love Ali's style!

The only way you can copy his style is to be or born Muhammad Ali!

[guitarnashelter]

ali could frustrate the best of boxers,he would just clam up against the ropes and let them pound away until whoever it was got truly fed up and irritated

[rogdag]

tyson loses there

Evander Holyfield was unable to

[rockystars11]

Ali is moeslim..

and this battle > borring

[jakeheartable]

muhhamad is boooring fighter.....how'd he became a great...

[saintquinn007]

I remember thinking this entire fight was lackluster...

After viewing this ...I was right....

This is why Tyson became a super star a fewyears later....

Because these types of performances became the norm in heavyweight fights....

[Silks]

I really don't like the ref breaking them when they aren't clinching. Let them stand head to head, glove to glove if they want. They are looking for openings.

[vgr112261]

Ali, after Zaire, didn't really train hard for fights. He compounded being out of shape with clowining. If he'd taken fights seriously, and trained, he wouldn't have taken the punishment from the likes of Shavers as he did.

[breastmilkgaysexs]

@perokcojones. Good point. This is definitely not one of Ali's better fights. He'd slowed down quite a bit by this point unfortunately. 

[perokcojones]

@breastmilkgaysexs but this kind of boxing matchs are boring,ali looks really bad in this fight