Muhammad Ali -vs- Earnie Shavers 9/29/77 part 1

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

[bangitslo]

@PeekaPeep I ALWAYS SAID SHAVERS IS THE ONE THAT DAMAGED ALI. Ali lost his next fight to Leon Spinks. I'm the BIGGEST Ali fan in the world. The fact that Muhammad took those right hands in the 2 round without going down is simply amazing. Shavers would drop Larry Holmes with the same right hand a couple of years later. Ali is truly The Greatest!

[thievinbrudda]

@TA152H01

shavers sucked at pacing himself, he didnt have stamina issues ,he was very fit, but he did manaage to burn himself out when he got to the later rounds because he started to fast.

almost opposite of frazier, who started slow , but stayed in your face all night after round 3.

[GarciaPando1989]

my god can you imagine if earnie shavers was fighting today he would take wladimirs head off with one of those right crosses

[prjerry7]

i cant think of a fighter who would have taken those punches. People forget but Shavers was dodged in those days, he was a scary fighter like Tyson in the 80's, Tyson was a bit faster but Shavers hit harder, just ask Larry Holmes who fought both, ro ask Foreman who dodged Shavers

[vgr112261]

I have to laugh when I read posts that Mike Tyson would have knocked Ali out. Not a snowballs chance. Ali was well past his prime here and took Shavers best shots.

[onlyjoetee]

Ali's hands were SO fast,damn,even at this stage in his career,blinding hand speed..

[jintoor]

Magnificent ali After fighting wars with foreman,frazier,norton, Ali way past his prime still takes on biggest puncher shavers

[GarciaPando1989]

@Dnamsak yes Ali always headhunts he rarely threw to the body

[Dnamsak]

Is it just me or did Ali always headhunting? he still is the Greatest though. Peace

[TheTony22019]

MAN Ali had a hell of a chin, Shavers was nailing his ass but Ali took those shots,,,,,,,, Shavers shook him up quite a bit but becuz Ali was clownin during the fight shavers wasnt sure if he really had Ali hurt...