Muhammad Ali vs. Earnie Shavers

Date	September 29, 1977
Title(s) on the line	{{{titles}}}
Earnie Shavers vs.  Muhammad Ali
The Black Destroyer		The Greatest
$300,000	Purse	$3,000,000
Tale of the tape
{{{hometown1}}}	From	{{{hometown2}}}
{{{record1}}}	Pre-fight record	{{{record2}}}
{{{recognition1}}}	Recognition	{{{recognition2}}}

Muhammad Ali and Earnie Shavers fought each other in a fifteen-round boxing match on September 29, 1977. The fight went the full distance with Ali emerging the winner through a unanimous decision.

Background

Shaver's payday was ten times less than Ali's, totalling $300,000, nevertheless that sum was more than he earned during his entire career.

The fight

Ali was badly hurt in the second round, but by pretending to be even more hurt than he was, deceived Shavers into thinking he was play-acting resulting in Shavers not going for a knockout. By finishing each round strongly, Ali won favor with the judges. Shavers put up a strong performance in the 13th and 14th rounds, but Ali finished the 15th round very strongly, nearly knocking Shavers down with a flurry of punches towards the end of the fight. Some experts regard Ali's performance in the Shavers fight to be one of the finest in his boxing career.

Commenting on this fight, Pat Putnam, long time boxing writer for Sports Illustrated, observed:

That fight with Shavers, and particularly the last round, sums up for me what Ali was about, even though he was long past his prime. Could have taken him out. He had him hurt early. Ali was ready to be taken, because if Shavers hit you, you were gone. But he suckered Earnie. He faked being more hurt than he was, and conned him out of going for the kill. He fought through that; he fought through fourteen rounds. People talk about Manila; they talk about Foreman; they talk about Liston. But to me, the fifteenth round against Shavers was as magnificent as any round Ali ever fought. He was exhausted. I don't know where he found the strength and stamina to go on, because when he went back to his corner after fourteen there was nothing left in his body. But he came out for the last round and fought three minutes as good as any three minutes I've ever seen. Not many people remember it now, but late in the round, he even had Shavers in trouble. Only the rope kept Shavers from going down.