Earnie Shavers, a hard-punching heavyweight boxer who stood toe to toe in title shots against Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, died Thursday. He was 78.
Shavers’ death was reported by his friend, former British boxer Kenny Rainford, who said the boxer died in Virginia at the home of one of his daughters.
“He had a hard career, traveled a lot and slowed down all the sudden,” Rainford told The Associated Press by telephone from Liverpool. Raiford’s aunt was married to Shavers for a decade.
No cause of death was given for Shavers, who died a day after his birthday.
Shavers compiled a 74-14-1 record with 68 knockouts from 1969 to 1995, according to Deadline.
Born in Garland, Alabama, Shavers moved to Ohio and grew up in Braceville Township, near Warren and Youngstown, WKBN-TV reported. He graduated from Newton Falls High School.
While Shavers did not take up boxing until he was 22, he made an immediate impact because of his hard punches.
On Sept. 29, 1977, Shavers faced Ali in a title fight and lost a close 15-round decision at Madison Square Garden, according to The Ring. Shavers connected solidly in the second round with several right hands, and Ali needed his guile and style, rallying in the final round to retain his title, according to the AP.
“Earnie hit me so hard, it shook my kinfolk in Africa,” Ali said after the fight.
“I tell you what, when Earnie Shavers hit Muhammad Ali, he felt it,” Holmes told The Ring. “I always told Earnie that Ali was messed up and slow (because of the punishment he took in that fight.) Earnie would say, ‘I didn’t do that, everyone else did it.’ I told him, ‘Nobody else hit like you, Earnie.’
“It was a close fight with Ali and Shavers. Earnie hit him hard and it lasted all day. If Earnie hits you today, it lasts until tomorrow.”
In 1978, Shavers faced an undefeated Holmes in Las Vegas and won a 12-round unanimous decision, according to The Ring.
After winning the heavyweight title, Holmes fought Shavers again in September 1979, The Guardian reported. The challenger knocked down Holmes in the seventh round, but lost in the 11th round.
“Earnie came to my house a lot over the years and we’d laugh and talk,” Holmes told The Ring. “He’d say, ‘I had you, Larry!’ He hit me a couple of times, knocked me down and stuff. I told him, ‘You hit too damn hard!’ I’ve said it before, he knocked me out with that shot and when I hit the ground I woke up. Not long ago, I told him that story.”
Shavers had surgery for a detached retina after the Holmes fight, according to the AP. The biggest win of his career was in March 1979, when he knocked out Ken Norton in the first round at the Las Vegas Hilton, the news organization reported.
Shavers lost to Randall “Tex” Cobb in an eight-round fight, and defeated Joe Bugner in the second round of a 1982 fight.
Boxing star Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini said he first met Shavers while competing as a junior Olympian.
“I was 15 years old training at the Warren Athletic Club and Earnie,” Mancini told WKBN. “He would down and train on Sundays, so on the weekends when I was there, I’d look at this guy he was built like body beautiful, you know? He was like an Adonis. He’d hit that bag and the whole building would shake.”
Rainford said a funeral is planned for Sept. 17 in Warren, according to the AP.