Larry Holmes vs Earnie Shavers 2

Larry Holmes made the fourth defence of his World Boxing Council heavyweight championship against Earnie Shavers at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, on September 28, 1979. It was their second meeting. Holmes had outpointed Shavers over 12 rounds in a title eliminator 18 months earlier, but the challenger had since earned another opportunity by knocking out former champion Ken Norton inside one round. Holmes entered unbeaten in 31 contests and weighed 210 pounds. Shavers, the WBC’s leading contender, scaled 211 and brought a record of 58 wins, seven defeats and one draw. Davey Pearl refereed the scheduled 15-round contest, which was televised nationally by ABC.

Holmes began with the sound tactics expected of him. He moved lightly around Shavers, held him at the end of a long left jab and used his right glove to parry the challenger’s lead. Shavers stalked steadily but could not bring his right hand within range during the opening round. A glancing right reached Holmes near the end of the second, while in the third Shavers worked more effectively to the body and made the champion retreat with two heavy rights which did not land cleanly. Holmes nevertheless remained in command, scoring with the jab and occasionally following it with a straight right or uppercut.

Shavers had greater success downstairs in the fourth, although some of his blows strayed behind Holmes’ head. His own face was beginning to suffer. Holmes’ jab opened a cut around the challenger’s left eye, and the blood provided the champion with a clear target. Shavers became increasingly impatient in the fifth, missing with wide rights and hitting on the break as Holmes stepped away. The champion began putting his punches together more freely and, in the sixth, rose onto his toes and repeatedly drove the jab into Shavers’ damaged face. By then, blood was showing around both of the challenger’s eyes, and the contest appeared to be following the pattern of their first meeting.

Holmes resumed his work in the seventh, sending a succession of jabs into the cuts. Shavers understood that the rounds were passing from him and began throwing his right with greater urgency. With less than a minute remaining, Holmes momentarily planted his feet and lowered his left as he prepared to deliver an uppercut. Shavers struck first. His overhand right travelled across the top and landed squarely on Holmes’ jaw with the full weight of his body behind it. The champion’s legs gave way immediately. He fell backwards as though separated from his senses, landing flat on his back with his arms spread and his head striking the canvas. The suddenness of it produced a scene more commonly arranged for the cinema: the man who had controlled every minute of the fight lay motionless while Shavers turned towards a neutral corner and the crowd rose in astonishment.

Holmes recovered with remarkable speed. His eyes cleared as Pearl counted, and he rolled over, gathered his feet beneath him and was standing at five. He had beaten the count comfortably, but his balance had not returned. His legs moved stiffly, and his hands were slow in coming back to guard as Shavers rushed across the ring. The challenger drove him to the ropes and swung both hands, landing further heavy punches but sacrificing accuracy in his haste. Holmes clinched when he could, moved along the ropes and, in the closing seconds, answered with punches of his own. Only about half a minute remained after the knockdown. The bell ended Shavers’ best and perhaps only opportunity to take the championship.

By the eighth, Holmes had regained sufficient command of himself to restore the jab and resume moving. Shavers, having spent heavily in his attempted finish, was tiring and remained troubled by the blood around his eyes. Holmes drove uppercuts and straight rights through the challenger’s guard. In the ninth, Shavers again sent Holmes to the floor with a right hand, but Pearl ruled that the champion had slipped. The decision was open to dispute, for a punch had landed as Holmes went down, although he did not appear seriously hurt. Holmes then came close to dropping Shavers with a sustained attack before the round ended.

The tenth was increasingly one-sided. Shavers continued advancing but no longer possessed the balance or energy to deliver his right with its earlier force. Holmes struck him with uppercuts at close range and right hands from outside, taking advantage of the challenger’s failing defence. In the eleventh, Pearl briefly interrupted the action to examine Shavers’ bruised and bloodied face and asked whether he wished to continue. Shavers indicated that he did, but Holmes soon drove him towards the ropes and landed another three-punch combination. With Shavers exhausted, unsteady and no longer returning effectively, Pearl stopped the contest at two minutes of the round.

Holmes was therefore declared the winner by technical knockout. At the stoppage, judges Harold Buck, Lou Tabat and Hal Miller had him ahead by scores of 98–90, 98–89 and 98–91 respectively. Shavers later maintained that he had been thumbed in an eye, but nothing altered the plain course of the fight. He had produced the single most damaging blow of the evening and come within seconds of winning the heavyweight championship, yet Holmes had recovered and reasserted his superiority. The champion’s boxing had won most of the rounds; his powers of recovery had preserved the title when boxing skill alone was no longer enough.

Holmes’s second fight against Shavers is one of the great chin checks in heavyweight history. Larry was WBC champion by then, making the fourth defence of his belt, and he had already outboxed Shavers over 12 rounds the year before. So the question going in was simple: could Earnie, one of the hardest punchers who ever lived, land the one shot that changed everything? That was always the danger with Shavers. He could look ordinary, get outboxed, miss by a yard, then suddenly put a right hand on your whiskers and ruin your whole life.

For the first six rounds, Holmes boxed him beautifully. That jab was doing the business again, stiff, accurate, and spiteful. He wasn’t just poking with it; he was busting Shavers up, keeping him at range, and making him reset every time he tried to plant his feet. Holmes had lovely rhythm when he was flowing: step, jab, right hand, turn, then back to the jab. Shavers was always dangerous, but he was following more than cutting the ring off, and against a jab like Holmes had, that is a hard night’s work.

But punchers are never beaten until the fight is over. In the seventh, Shavers landed that right hand, a real bomb. Holmes went down hard, and for a second, you thought the title had gone. Plenty of heavyweights would not have got up from that, and plenty more would have got up with nothing left in their legs. Larry got up like a champion. Hurt, yes, but composed enough to grab, move, think, and survive.

That moment told me more about Holmes than a dozen easy wins. You can look great when your jab is landing, and the other man cannot touch you. The real truth comes when you are on the floor with your head buzzing and the baddest puncher in the division walking towards you. Holmes passed that test.

After that, Shavers started to fade. His face was marked up, his gas tank was emptying, and Holmes went back to working him over. By the eleventh, Larry was in control again, picking his shots and punishing a tired challenger. Referee Davey Pearl looked it over, let it continue, then Holmes put together the final attack, and it was stopped at 2:00 of the round.

Shavers had the punch, no doubt, but Holmes had the jab, the brain, the recovery, and the champion’s heart. That night proved Larry was not just a good title-holder. He was heavyweight royalty.