Muhammad Ali defended his undisputed world heavyweight titles against Earnie Shavers
Date: September 29, 1977
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York
Ali stance: orthodox
Shavers stance: orthodox
Muhammad Ali regained the undisputed title from George Foreman with an eighth round stoppage in The Rumble in the Jungle. He defended his titles eight times, winning trilogy bouts against Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. Those two battles had taken a lot out of Ali, and as the champion was now 35, many were wondering how much he had left. In his previous defence, Ali had been taken the full 15 rounds by Alfredo Evangelista in a rather lacklustre performance.
Earnie Shavers turned pro in 1969, and after an indifferent start to his career went on a winning streak of 33 fights with 32 KOs. The best of those wins came against Jimmy Young and former WBA champion Jimmy Ellis. Jerry Quarry put an end to that run in just one round. While Shavers then won most of his fights, he lacked another big name on his record.
For an in depth look at their respective records, visit:
Muhammad Ali - https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/000180
Earnie Shavers - https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/320
Please note: the bottom 50 pixels were trimmed off this video to hide the name of the site that originally sold it to me.
