Round 15 – Muhammad Ali versus Earnie Shavers

Ali - Shavers, at Madison Square Garden - September 29, 1977, and the round that closed the curtain on the great era of ‘The Greatest’s era.

Round 15 of the legendary Muhammad Ali vs. Earnie Shavers fight, from Madison Square Garden in the fall of 1977, was Ali’s last great round in a career of great rounds.

In a 21-year, 61-fight career, Muhammad Ali has an almost unimaginable resume. After capturing Olympic gold in 1960 in Rome, he turned pro. His professional ledger boasted not only multiple heavyweight title defences, but he did so against a who’s who list of Hall of Fame legends; Ali himself being the most legendary of all. 

A good professional fighter who can list a few well-known names as foes, in either victory or defeat, can usually ride that into boxing lore among friends and fans for a lifetime.

When you have a record that lists Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Chuvalo, Sonny Liston, Henry Cooper, Jerry Quarry, Jimmy Ellis, Brian London, Floyd Patterson, Oscar Bonavena, Archie Moore, George Foreman, Ron Lyle, and Earnie Shavers (among others), you have an unmatched resume. Throw in 18 World Boxing Council (WBC) world heavyweight title defences over 2 championship runs - and you earn the nickname, “The Greatest”.

Thirteen years before Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) was born, George Druxman was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but raised in Portland, Oregon. He would go on to a great career with the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Druxman captured 4 Grey Cups (Canada’s Super Bowl) in a 9-year professional career after an outstanding stint at the University of Portland. While playing and residing in Winnipeg, Druxman would be a Canadian Football League all-star 5 times and play on championship teams from 1958 to 1962. 

In retirement, the Blue Bombers Hall of Fame inducted Druxman in 1991, voters chose him as the YMHA Outstanding Jewish Athlete of the last 40 years in 1993, and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame inducted him posthumously in 2013.

So, Druxman and his children understood professional sports and the culture of championship-level athletes.

The connection?

When son Trevor recently approached me to discuss a Muhammad Ali fight, I was interested. His thoughts on the last round of Ali’s fight with Shavers intrigued me. 

In a bold, but well-researched opinion, Druxman declared that the 15th round of the Muhammad Ali-Earnie Shavers fight was one of boxing’s truly great finales. It was a legendary round for Ali and certainly was the last great round, in a career of great rounds, for “The Greatest”.

Conversations raised questions. Was this Ali’s greatest round to punctuate his final greatest performance? Was this one of boxing’s all-time great rounds? The round didn’t produce a come-from-behind, dramatic KO (traditionally the hallmark of a great round or fight). However, it did punctuate the final round of a fight that was always one punch away from taking Ali and his championship reign down. Where does the fight and finale stand in the annals of Ali’s career?

This is where we start.

Ali, then Cassius Clay, turned pro in his native Louisville, Kentucky, in the fall of 1960 and would be 19-0 by February 1964. He would then beat monstrous heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, taking his WBC world title strap, stopping him in 6. Ali would beat him again, a little over a year later, via KO 1 in the infamous “phantom punch” fight.

After the second Liston fight, Ali would go on a 5-year, 10-fight unbeaten streak, which included 8 title defences. 

This led him to the spring of 1971, his first fight with left hook legend Smokin’ Joe Frazier, and his first loss. Frazier was from Beaufort, South Carolina, but had learned to box in Philadelphia. He was iron-tough and could crack, as Ali would learn, getting dropped in the 15th round of their fight - losing a unanimous decision.   

However, after this fight, Ali would go on an amazing tear through the heavyweight division that saw him bank 23 wins from the spring of 1971 until the spring of 1977. His only blemish was a close, split decision loss to Ken Norton, a loss he avenged two times. In that amazing streak, he defended the North American Boxing Federation title eight times and the WBC title 9 times. Victories included Jimmy Ellis, Buster Mathis, George Foreman, Mac Foster, Floyd Patterson, Jerry Quarry, Bob Foster, Joe Bugner, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young, and Alfredo Evangelista, (some numerous times). Ali had done more than enough to walk away from the sport with his incredible legacy intact. 

Going back to 1974, after the Foreman fight, many were asking Ali, with nothing more to prove in the sport, if he would retire. His masterful mugging of Foreman, wearing him down and out punching Foreman later in the fight, certainly foreshadowed his blueprint for Shavers. He should have retired. But when boxing is your identity, and has been the ticket to global adulation in and out of the ring, it is hard to stop. 

Next was a showdown at Madison Square Garden, with KO artist Shavers, who would come in at 54-5-1, with 52 big knockouts.  

The fight itself was a back-and-forth war that saw two contrasting styles with Ali peppering Shavers with fast combinations while Shavers looked to land hard counter rights. 

What made Ali’s performance so good was that he could have tried to dance and move on Shavers all night and steal a decision. But Ali, ever the genius with mental tricks in the ring, chose to show Shavers he would beat him at his own game. 

For Ali to avoid Shavers for the full 45 minutes, he was going to have to get him fatigued for the last half of the fight. Ali would have to take chances, get in close, and land the energy-draining shots that could turn the tide his way as the fight progressed.

Staying in close and landing the faster shots on Shavers might sound like a good plan, volume over strength, but it was risky. Shavers had concussive power and could change the course of the fight with one shot. Ali had to land a lot of shots; Shavers needed to land just one.

Ali knew he had to land the volume of shots required to significantly tire out Shavers. Dancing and pecking from the perimeter wouldn’t keep Shavers off him. He had a plan, but it was risky.

When Shavers landed, Ali felt it. The champion said after the fight that Shavers power,

"Shook my kinfolk in Africa." 

However, as he brought it to fruition throughout the fight, he was showing he was indeed daring to be great one more time. Ali, probably confident he was leading on the cards heading into the final frame, could have boxed, held, and moved. But he chose to close the show with the bravery and execution that surprised and frustrated a still aggressive Shavers.

Ali stood firm, landing hard counter check rights after slipping shots with his (dangerous) move of leaning back to make the punch miss before returning with hard counters. While Ali made it look easy, dodging a person named ‘Shavers’ was a dangerous move.

The final scores came in at 9-6 Ali, 9-6 Ali, 9-5-1 Ali. However, the numbers don’t tell the whole story of a fighter aged 35 (old for that era) with a lifetime of boxing behind him, coming out for one final great performance in boxing’s most dangerous landscape - facing a knockout puncher.

 In summary, the last great round of Ali’s career.

At the end of the 14th round, as Ali’s corner feverishly tried to revive their tired champion, while ringside announcers wondered if Ali would be able to survive the last frame. Ali had been buckled in the 14th round but answered back with customary bravery, waving in Shavers to bring it on.

Although weary, Shavers came forward for most of the round, pounding Ali’s body in close, looking to land his vaunted right cross from the perimeter. When he landed his right, Ali willed his way back into every sequence. Both fighters traded bombs throughout the round, with Ali returning fire every time Shavers would land a lunging right cross.

Then, with exhaustion tormenting both fighters, Ali summoned up one final assault of 30 virtually unanswered punches that sent the Gotham crowd into a frenzy. Ali somehow found the reserves to pull off one final attack, solidifying Ali’s win with an amazing showing on the brink of exhaustion. An amazing final display of greatness.

There is no question that Shavers would have hit the canvas on a couple of occasions had he not been held up by the ropes.

In an interesting sidebar that sheds light on the psyche of both camps, at the final bell Shavers’ corner leaped into the air. This was a moral victory for Shavers’ camp in finishing the fight and giving a good showing.  

To look at Ali’s fight with Shavers and declare it his last great hurrah, you really must look at what came after. Post-Shavers, with boxing’s undefeated opponents (age, punishment, and poor conditioning) taking their now obvious toll, Ali would go 1-3 from 1978 until his retirement in 1981, as he closed in on age 40. Those last few fights were unnecessary, and many wondered in the epilogue of his career how much damage they did. While Ali indeed had one of boxing’s great chins, it came at a cost to his health later in life. In truth, Ali’s career should have ended after his glorious Shavers win. 

Ali seemed to be going through the motions in his last few fights. He shouldn’t have been in the ring, and he fought like it. He took unnecessary punishment in fights that only hurt his legacy. Even Ali himself seemed to know that the curtain on the “great” stage of his career came down after the Shavers victory. 

When legendary trainer and Hall of Fame broadcaster Teddy Atlas was eulogizing former middleweight great Marvin Hagler after his March 2021 passing, he talked about Hagler dispatching thunderous power puncher John Mugabi late in his career. Hagler, older and with a lot of miles on him from a long career, awaited the Ray Leonard payday that was to come.

Atlas honoured Hagler for his toughness and bravery at every stage of his career, especially in the later stages where he had nothing left to prove.

“Who fights this guy at this age?” bellowed Atlas. “A guy like Mugabi, who can knock down walls with his punches. Who fights him? Marvin Hagler fights him”.

Late in a long and punishing career, with nothing left to prove, who goes out against Ernie Shavers and not only beats him but beats him by out-punching him from in close; treacherous territory against Shavers. Who Does that?

Muhammad Ali does that. 

Decisions like that, where you dare to be great, land on the cost-reward spectrum.    

Muhammad Ali was much more than a world champion; he was the world’s champion, fighting in the United States, England, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, India, Africa, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas.

In this fight, it wasn’t just that Ali was great; he had been great on many nights in the ring. It wasn’t what he did, it was how he did it. At this age, at this stage, to channel the mental (and physical) strength to best a strong, power puncher like Shavers, once again displayed why Ali was, is, and forever will be, referred to as not just a special fighter but a special human being.

While Ali retired in 1981, after his 61st fight, his last great career highlight came in 1977 in his 57th bout against Earnie Shavers. On that night in a packed Madison Square Garden, Muhammad Ali came out to show the world, one more time, who was still “The Greatest”. 

Interviewed years later, Shavers was still in awe of the display by his old opponent, and now dear and revered friend.

“Ali set the pattern in the second round. He’d jab me once, then again. I timed him and I thought he was playing, but he was hurt”, said Shavers. “Then, in the 14th round I caught him and hurt him, his knees buckled. But he came back so strong, he fought like it was the 1st round, when he recuperated”, said a still amazed Shavers. “The last 30 seconds of the fight was unbelievable; Ali turned the whole thing around”. 

While there was marvel in Shavers’ voice as he recounted the comeback by Ali, what really came through was the respect.

Shavers realized he was again remembering the incredible last round showing of the man who was truly “The Greatest”. 

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