Muhammad Ali -vs- Earnie Shavers 9/29/77 part 6

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 Alis 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

[counterstriving]

I admire Ken Norton here for not allowing his feelings about Ali to distort his commentating on the fight.

[example6978]

@lucky44124 earth. he won on planet earth

[Triangulove]

@RealLifeOmen

But ali landed more punches and shavers still missed a lot of them. Especially in round 14. 

[RealLifeOmen]

Shavers killed him....

[vx3k]

Past his prime,

Shavers vs Cassius Clay ( When he fought liston 1) would have gone way differently, dancing , speed and the swiftness that made him untouchable

[EndlessLaymon]

Bullshit. I am so sick of Ali's butt lickers everywhere. They glorify him over any performance.

Even a blind man could see that Shavers dominated that fight.

[KingZaza36]

Ali.. Please come back and Kill Klitschko.. I Bet ya

[BigDaddyHeavyweight]

you have to dig deep to find a heavyweight these days who´d have the courage to fight Ernie. Today he´d be champion of the world!

Shavers reminds me somewhat of a bigger version of the fantastic Marvin Hagler and not because of his shaven head or the color of his trunks.

[Silks]

Great last round.

[dreman1970]

@lucky44124 Oh, and Shavers said that HIMSELF about the fight...He ADMITTED he lost....

[dreman1970]

@lucky44124 Shavers wasn't robbed....Shavers did not throw nearly enough punches to win the title...If you are going to win the title...especially against ALI, you need to be busy like Norton (in the first fight), and Frazier....Throwing 20-25 punches in a round vs Ali was NOT going to get it done

[TheFox251]

I thought this fight was a draw.