Very good or great? Volume 6: Terry Norris

Great,hmm... He had amazing skills, good speed and good power. When he was on, he was nasty. However, in making the choice for greatness, the whole package comes into play. I think his shaky chin holds him back. He could be (and was ) stopped by mediocre fighters. You could never count on him completely. Getting dropped is one thing, getting dropped and stopped is another thing all together. Anyone with anykind of a punch was a threat... He is just a step below...

 

He can technically be considered a great at 154 lbs, in a sense that he spent the most time at that weight compared to the other great 154 lbers like Hearns or Benitez.

Now P4P is a different story...

 

Go make a Terry Norris vs. Dick Tiger thread

 

Out of all the "Very Good or Great" volumes, Terry Norris easily comes the closest to being considered Great.

I'm kind of on the fence in this one as I do think he could be great. You know what i'm just voting for great.

 

Nah, the closest to greatness Norris ever got was probably watching Ernesto Marcel on tv, yo.

 

I think at 154 he can be considered a great, buuuttt in the overall scheme of things I think he was just very good, so that gets my vote.

 

That is a disgrace that thread. For anybody who votes Ernesto as a ****in ATG is a ******, no doubt.

 

go put on your red rooster knee pads. Another boxing Einstein...

 

I think he is a little short of great. His chin was not great, but his speed was. Very good to almost great. Even though Chavez was smaller, they spoke about Norris fighting Chavez and had he stopped Chavez, I think that might have propelled him to the great level. Beating Leonard and Curry and Chavez would have been a great resume, regardless of them all being out of prime or weight.

 

Mos def! between the confusion of wording and your run of sensible posts of late I think i'm on the precipe of breakdown-ness (yea I made a word up but after half a bottle of teacher's who can blame me?)

 

This.

Norris was a bully to past prime welters and junior welters but didn't fair too well against the better fighters his own size.

Extremely hard guy to beat for light punching pure boxer sorts, but liable to get ko'ed by just about any above good junior middles (or hard punching still prime moving up welters).

 

Very Very good,but not great(Just misses the cut). He beat a lot of guys past their prime and also got knocked around from time to time. However, he did get belts in 4 weight classes I believe. I was a fan of his fights also.

 

one if not the best light middles ever career wise.

the "he only fought blown up welters" is reaching.

1st. he never abused the wieght limit. many times he was only a few pounds over welter. he was practically a welter that didn't drain to make the weight.

2nd. the only smaller guy was meldrick taylor. who was successful at 147, and only 2 pounds over the ,imit. hardly blown up. while terry was also at 149. and besides we have seen corey spinks - jermain taylor no one says a word about how spinks was too small

3rd. his rivalry with chavez was more due to both fighting in the california area. which had a massive mexican crowd. and with the norris beating taylor it put the chavez - taylor rematch in jeopardy. and because they where only a division apart and p4pers it became a sort of rivalry. i remember there where matches about calzaghe vs winky. again nobody batted an eyelid.


he is a very very very good fight. even if he had a better chin i dont thin kit would matter in terms of legacy or head 2 head match ups.the tragedy is that he went down hill so fast that we never saw an experienced veteran becoming of him we only saw his youthful flashy style.

 

His sparking by Julian Jackson is enough to say he isn't great. Sure the Hawk hits hard, but a chin like that precludes a man from greatness in boxing, unless he can avoid being hit, which he obviously could not. How many times did he lose?

Consistency is another important attribute he lacks.