(WKBN)- According to multiple published reports including Yahoo Sports, former heavyweight boxer Earnie Shavers passed away Thursday at the age of 78.

Shavers was born in Alabama but grew up in Braceville Township and graduated from Newton Falls High School.

His boxing career stretched from 1969 to 1995.

He fought for the heavyweight title twice, once against Muhammad Ali and later against Larry Holmes.

Another local boxing celebrity Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini first met Shavers when he was competing as a junior Olympian.

“I was 15 years old training at the Warren Athletic Club and Earnie. He would down and train on Sundays, so on the weekends when I was there, I’d look at this guy he was built like body beautiful, you know? He was like an Adonis. He’d hit that bag and the whole building would shake,” Mancini said.

Mancini said Shavers had recently been living in Las Vegas. He was known during his career as one of the hardest punchers, ever, Mancini said.

Shavers’s cause of death has not been determined.