Heavyweight Boxing

Earnie Shavers vs Larry Holmes

A fight that actually happened — and everything both records say about it.

Meetings on record

Earnie Shavers and Larry Holmes met 2 times (1978, 1979). Larry Holmes won in 1979 by ko; Larry Holmes won in 1978 by decision.

SOURCE·Earnie Shavers and Larry Holmes — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·both records name the other·REVIEWED AUG 2026

How this head-to-head is established

This pairing exists only because at least one of the two articles' own results tables names the other fighter. No matchup on this site is speculative and none is a hypothetical.
Every figure in the comparison below comes from that fighter's own page and carries the same source line. A dash means the source states nothing, not that the value is zero.
Common opponents are found by matching linked bout lists, which is only possible because every fight list here is linked to every other. A shared opponent is not a transitive result and this page does not treat it as one.
Nothing on this page predicts an outcome. It is a comparison of what is on record.

A comparison of what is on record. Nothing here predicts a result.

Both fought these 4. This is the comparison the siloed databases cannot make, because it needs every fight list linked to every other.

The same ledger line on each: wins stamped above the rule, losses below, the mark's shape carrying how it ended.

WON ABOVE·LOST BELOW BAR = STOPPAGE·BROKEN BAR = SUBMISSION·TICK = DECISION 1970–1995 · EARLIEST 9 NOT SHOWN

winlossdraw / NC1969–1995

WON ABOVE·LOST BELOW BAR = STOPPAGE·BROKEN BAR = SUBMISSION·TICK = DECISION 1973–2004 · EARLIEST 3 NOT SHOWN

winlossdraw / NC1973–2004

Cross-references

The full ledger: 89 bouts, the reach placed in its cohort, and what the record does not say.

The same, from the other corner — 83 bouts and the cohort Holmes is ranked inside.

The other 899 pairings whose own records confirm the fight happened — not a list of fights anyone imagined.