Shavers, who was best known by his alias ‘The Black Destroyer’, challenged unsuccessfully for the world heavyweight championship on two occasions during his 26-year career.
Those two world title challenges did in fact come against Ali and Holmes in 1977 and 1978 respectively, both via unanimous decision. Shavers also shared the ring with tough American heavyweight Ron Lyle, who himself had fell short in the only world heavyweight title challenge of his career against Ali in 1975.
In an interview with Boxing News, Shavers was asked to discuss his 1977 showdown against Ali and how it elevated him and his credentials.
“Yes, that fight brought me worldwide recognition. It was a great fight and I hurt Muhammad Ali on a couple of occasions, but he won the fight; he scored more points than I did over the 15-rounds.”
He was then asked to talk about his fight against Holmes a year later, where he reveals ‘The Easton Assassin’ was actually a better fighter than Ali in his opinion.
“I think Larry Holmes was the best fighter I ever fought. He was better than Ali. See, they both had great jabs, but Ali’s was a flicking jab; Holmes’ was a puncher’s jab! They were both truly great of course, but I give Larry the edge.”
‘The Black Destroyer’ retired from the sport in 1995 after suffering damage to his eyes following a number of comeback fights. In September 2022, Shavers passed away after a short and brave battle with illness.
Holmes would of course go on to face and beat Ali, becoming the only man to stop the heavyweight legend but doing so when he was well past his prime and, as most agree, should not have been stepping into the ring.
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