Larry Holmes shared the ring with a number of huge punchers throughout his career, including the ferocious Mike Tyson.
Holmes is viewed as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, defending his world title 20 times during a seven-year reign from 1978 to 1985.
He defeated Muhammad Ali in the boxing icon’s penultimate fight in 1980, whilst also sharing the ring with the likes of Evander Holyfield, Michael Spinks, Oliver McCall and the aforementioned Tyson.
The clash between Holmes and Tyson took place in January 1988, and saw ‘Iron Mike’ claim a fourth round TKO victory, marking the only time that ‘The Easton Assassin’ was stopped in his career.
Despite falling victim to the power of Tyson, Holmes revealed to Boxing News that there is another man he fought who he deems to hit even harder.
“Earnie Shavers, no doubt about it. He could knock the hell out of you!”
Holmes is also credited with saying:
“Earnie Shavers gave you a lot to think about. Mainly it came to his punching power. Of all the fighters I ever fought, nobody could punch harder. Not Tyson, not Gerry Cooney, not Ken Norton. Shavers’s punches numbed your bones. Those other guys hit hard. When they landed, their punches hurt. But Shavers was in a league all his own.”
Holmes and Shavers met on two occasions, with the first coming in March 1978, where ‘The Easton Assassin’ claimed a unanimous decision victory.
A rematch between the two men occurred 18 months later, and while Holmes won by 11th round stoppage, he had to recover from a seventh round knockdown at the hands of Shavers.
That was one of two world heavyweight title opportunities for Shavers, with the other coming when he was beaten by unanimous decision against Ali in September 1977, though Shavers appeared to hurt the boxing legend on several occasions throughout the bout.
The final record of Shavers stood at 76 wins from his 91 fights, with a mammoth 90 of those victories coming by knockout.
