Earnie Shavers

American boxer (1944–2022)

厄尔尼·萨维尔斯 · アーニー・シェーバーズ

Born

31 August 1944, Garland

Died

1 September 2022, Martinsville

Citizenship

United States

Sport

boxing

Discipline

heavyweight

Occupation

boxer

Height

183 cm (6 ft 0 in)

Earnie Dee Shaver (August 31, 1944 – September 1, 2022), best known as Earnie Shavers, was an American professional boxer who competed between 1969 and 1995. A two-time world heavyweight championship challenger, he is most famous as one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight boxing history. He scored 70 knockout wins, including 23 in the first round, for a 76.9% overall knockout rate.

Shavers twice unsuccessfully challenged for the heavyweight championship, losing to Muhammad Ali in 1977 by a 15-round unanimous decision and to Larry Holmes in 1979 by TKO in round 11. He hurt Ali in the second round and knocked down Holmes in the seventh round. Shavers defeated former world champions Vicente Rondón, Jimmy Ellis, and Ken Norton, as well as three-time European heavyweight champion Joe Bugner and top heavyweight contender Jimmy Young.

In 2001, Shavers released an autobiography, Welcome to the Big Time. After retiring from boxing, he continued to attend boxing events as a special guest, autograph signer, and motivational speaker.

Films

External links

• Wikipedia
• BoxRec
• IMDb
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q330426 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.