Confessions of a Not-So-Dangerous Mind*
Oct 23, 2026 · 4 min · 4 segments
Sylvester Stallone's original idea for Rocky 3 was to cast legendary boxer Earnie Shavers as Clubber Lang. Alas, it was not to be. Join me for a fascinating piece of true history, culled from the May…
Stallone's intention was to cast a real-life boxer whose career was kind of coming to the end, but a legendary name in boxing lore, even though he never held a portion of any title.
To my knowledge, I don't think he was like ever the NABF champion or anything like that.
And the reason why Ernie Shavers is still legendary is there are a significant percentage of boxing experts and historians who right now, today, will say he was the hardest puncher in boxing history.
His punches had more concussive force per square inch than anyone, maybe except Ivan Drago, but that's Rocky IV.
So Stallone wanted Ernie Shavers, a very intimidating-looking man, very, very fearsome, scary-looking dude who was a really nice guy when he wasn't fighting and trying to bust people's heads open.
Stallone's intention was to cast a real-life boxer whose career was kind of coming to the end, but a legendary name in boxing lore, even though he never held a portion of any title.
To my knowledge, I don't think he was like ever the NABF champion or anything like that.
And the reason why Ernie Shavers is still legendary is there are a significant percentage of boxing experts and historians who right now, today, will say he was the hardest puncher in boxing history.
His punches had more concussive force per square inch than anyone, maybe except Ivan Drago, but that's Rocky IV.
So Stallone wanted Ernie Shavers, a very intimidating-looking man, very, very fearsome, scary-looking dude who was a really nice guy when he wasn't fighting and trying to bust people's heads open.
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