Earnie Shavers, Gone at 78, Was The Bambino of Boxing’s Biggest Boppers

Published

3 years ago

September 2, 2022

Earnie Shavers, Gone at 78, Was The Bambino of Boxing’s Biggest Boppers

The technology of sports today, most of them anyway, has become so advanced that what once was the stuff of legend – tales of incredible individual feats that tended to grow taller with the passage of time – now seem like mathematical equations more appropriate for a NASA space launch. Take baseball, for example. The exact distance of every home run hit now in the big leagues almost instantly can be determined by a computer, which also supplies such minutiae as the ball’s exit velocity and the launch angle of the batter’s swing.

All of which means that no matter how many home runs New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge crushes this season, or how precisely calculated the distances of some of his longer blasts are, he can never fire a modern fan’s imagination to the extent that a pre-computerized Babe Ruth did. One of the most oft-recited examples of Ruthian prowess is the ball he hit for his 714^th and final homer, and third of the day, when the 40-year-old Babe, then playing for the Boston Braves, completely cleared the 86-foot stands of Pittsburgh’s spacious Forbes Field. The ball landed on the roof of a rowhouse across the street, some eyewitnesses swearing that it even flew over the roof by 50 feet. The generally accepted distance for Ruth’s career parting shot is an epic 600 feet, which fans are free to believe or not.

Boxing’s analytics have not yet caught up to baseball’s, although CompuBox’s punch-counting statistics at least give the sweet science a veneer of what might yet be. Don’t dismiss the possibility that someday in the not-too-distant future computer chips will be embedded in fighter’s gloves that will provide detailed information as to how many pounds per square inch were delivered by a knockout blow. When and if that day comes, much of the wonderment attached to fans’ fascination with power punchers will be reduced to cold, hard and mostly dissatisfying statistics.

It would be overstating matters to describe heavyweight slugger Earnie Shavers, who passed away Thursday, the day after his 78^th birthday, as “The Bambino” of boxing. Unlike Ruth, still arguably the greatest baseball player of all time and whose 714^th home-run ball is still a cherished memento in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., Shavers is not an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and likely never will be. He has certain losses to at least partially offset his raft of awe-inspiring knockout victories, and historians can argue, correctly, that “The Acorn” – the nickname conferred upon him by Muhammad Ali – had stamina issues that limited his maximum effectiveness to five or six rounds, as well as a relative inability to shake off the kind of big punches that he so routinely delivered.

The power quotient of the 6’1”, 210-pound Shavers, however, has continued to be discussed in the manner of those who somehow have been at ground zero during a tornado or a tsunami. Even those who survived the potential natural disaster of having shared the ring with him speak of the experience with hushed reverence.

“Man, I been in there with the best,” said James “Quick” Tillis, who scored a 10-round unanimous decision over Shavers on June 10, 1982. “I fought a bald-headed guy named Earnie Shavers, who was the baddest dude in the world. He hit so hard, he could turn goat milk into gasoline.”

And this, from Randall “Tex” Cobb, who stopped Shavers in eight rounds on Aug. 2, 1980: “Nobody hits like Shavers. If anybody hit harder than Shavers, I’d shoot him.”

Also this, from Ron Lyle, after he scored a six-round TKO over Shavers on Sept. 13, 1975: “Hey, man, that’s the hardest I’ve ever been hit in my life. George Foreman could punch, but none of them could like hit Earnie Shavers did. When he hit you, the lights went out. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn’t funny.”

A 35-year-old Ali was pushed to the limit in defending his WBA, WBC and The Ring heavyweight titles on a 15-round unanimous decision on Sept. 29, 1977, after which he remarked that “Earnie hit me so hard, it shook my kinfolk in Africa.” He further noted that Shavers was “stronger than Joe Frazier and George Foreman. I don’t know why I picked on him so late in my career.”

The Ali bout was the first of Shavers’ two bids for his sport’s grandest prize, but it wasn’t his most notable career near-achievement. That would be his rematch with WBC champion Larry Holmes on Sept. 28, 1979, at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace. They previously had fought on March 25, 1978, with Holmes, who had yet to win the title, winning a 12-round unanimous decision.

Holmes had plunged to the canvas in the seventh round as if poleaxed by the kind of percussive shot that almost without fail resulted into Shavers winning right then and there. But this was the “Easton Assassin,” whose recuperative powers on this night would prove a match for the challenger’s vaunted firepower.

“If I had one fight, one moment, I could do over, it’d be in the second fight with Larry Holmes,” a reflective Shavers recalled years later. “The punch I had been trying to land all night finally found its mark. An overhand right caught Holmes flush on the button, and down as if he had been deboned. As I headed to the neutral corner, Holmes didn’t stir. I was the heavyweight champion of the world. All my troubles were finally over. It was the greatest feeling I’d ever had. And it lasted for five whole seconds.”

Holmes, who surprised maybe even himself by pulling himself back onto his feet before the count reached 10, somehow made it to the bell ending the round and thereafter seized control again en route to winning by 11^th-round TKO. But he never forgot what it was like to be drilled like he’d never been nailed before or later. He would later say that Shavers had hit him harder than Mike Tyson did.

“Man, I still got knots in my head where he hit me,” the “Easton Assassin” recalled. “Earnie could punch very hard, incredibly hard. I hear people say, `Aw, man, he couldn’t possibly have hit as hard as everyone says.’ They think the stories about Earnie’s power are exaggerated. It’s no exaggeration. That power was real.”

Perhaps, had he not risen to prominence in the midst of one of the most gilded golden ages of heavyweight boxing in the 1970s and into the early ’80s, Shavers might have claimed an alphabet title during a less talent-rich era. But being very good, and exceptionally on those occasions when he got there first with a massive shot, wasn’t good enough considering that Shavers’ contemporaries included Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Frazier, Lyle, Gerry Cooney, Ken Norton, Michael Spinks, Jerry Quarry, Jimmy Ellis, George Chuvalo, Jimmy Ellis and Oscar Bonavena. And while Shavers registered quick knockouts of Norton, Ellis and Young, he also lost inside the distance in matchups with Lyle, Cobb, Quarry and Bernardo Mercado. Including two ill-advised comebacks in 1987 and ’95, he finished 74-14-1, with 68 KOs.

I interviewed Shavers for a fight card on Sept. 26, 2013, at the Sands Bethlehem Events Center in Bethlehem, Pa. He was there along with fellow golden oldies Holmes, Cooney and Thomas Hearns for a meet-and-greet with fans that had paid an additional fee to get autographs and to pose for pictures.

Asked whom he considered to be the hardest-hitting heavyweight, Shavers, then 68, not surprisingly, described himself as “Number One. No one can outpunch me, except God.”

Any list, be it pound-for-pound, hardest puncher, best boxer or whatever, is subjective. Opinions will always vary. In 2003, Shavers was listed as the 10^th-greatest puncher of all time, regardless of weight class, by The Ring, following heavyweights Joe Louis (1), Jack Dempsey (7) and Foreman (9), but ahead of Rocky Marciano (14), Sonny Liston (15) and Tyson (16). Another list of the “Hardest hitters in heavyweight history,” was posted by ESPN.com’s Graham Houston on Dec. 27, 2007, and it had Tyson at No. 1, Louis third, Foreman fourth, Marciano fifth and Shavers sixth.

A more recent such list, The Ring’s 100 greatest punchers of the last 100 years, appeared in a special June 2022 collector’s special. Louis again got the top spot, with Dempsey (4), Foreman (5) and Shavers (6) also in the top 10. The second 10 included heavyweights Marciano (11), Liston (12), Tyson (13), Deontay Wilder (16) and Max Baer (20).

Lists spark debates, and arguing the merits of fighters from different eras has always been a component of what makes boxing enthralling. Was Shavers the biggest hitter ever? Maybe, or maybe not. But he deserves to be in any such discussion, and that should be good enough. God forbid that the barroom arguments that have always sufficed until now move into the realm of digital printouts.

Somewhere, the late, great Babe Ruth probably is glad that he played his game the way it was then.

Bernard Fernandez, named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category with the Class of 2020, was the recipient of numerous awards for writing excellence during his 28-year career as a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Fernandez’s first book, “Championship Rounds,” a compendium of previously published material, was released in May of last year. The sequel, “Championship Rounds, Round 2,” with a foreword by Jim Lampley, is currently out. The anthology can be ordered through Amazon.com and other book-selling websites and outlets.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

2 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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