Two-time world heavyweight champion contender Earnie Shavers died Thursday, just one day after turning 78.
Muhammad Ali retained his world heavyweight crown in a 15-round unanimous decision over Earnie Shavers in 1977.."He came here to Easton a lot of times. If I needed something, he’d come — no charge or nothing. He came to a golf tournament here and everyone liked him. Earnie was a good guy, and he never complained about anything."
"Earnie came to my house a lot over the years and we’d laugh and talk," he said of their friendship."He’d say, ‘I had you, Larry!’ He hit me a couple of times, knocked me down and stuff. I told him, ‘You hit too damn hard!’ I’ve said it before, he knocked me out with that shot and when I hit the ground I woke up. Not long ago, I told him that story." CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.
Holmes recalled Shavers' fight against Ali in September 1977, where after the bout, the world heavyweight champion reportedly said,"Earnie hit me so hard, it shook my kinfolk in Africa." Ali slips in the 14th round as Shavers walks to a neutral corner during their heavyweight title bout. "I tell you what, when Earnie Shavers hit Muhammad Ali, he felt it," Holmes told the outlet."I always told Earnie that Ali was messed up and slow [because of the punishment he took in that fight]. Earnie would say, ‘I didn’t do that, everyone else did it.’ I told him, ‘Nobody else hit like you, Earnie!’"
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