Was Ken Norton old at damn near age 33 against Larry Holmes?

Yes, Kenny looked like he had slowed down and was finished in his next fight

 

Larry was very good. A lot of people do not give him credit for beating a Norton who was still a decent fighter.

 

Larry deserves loads of credit for sure. Norton turned up ready to roll and did fight extremely well. Tho aged and declining he turned back the clock to an extent. It's still a great win, possibly the best of Holmes career.

 

I think norton's body attack against young is excellent and it's a real underrated asset of his.

Kenny against larry looks no worse than he did against ali Imo.

 

So you would consider this peak Norton?

 

By definition I cannot because a peak performance, imo, is when a fighter looks at their absolute zenith; so if I was going to choose one of ken's fights to display his skillset I wouldn't pick larry. It's rare that I consider a fighter to have lost whilst being peak, they'd have to have peak performances either side of a loss.

Now a fighter's prime years is where I consider them to have been at the top level such that any losses should be held against them legacy wise, so it's after green and before shot. I consider ken's prime years to scale from the first fight with ali through to the fight with ali. During these years ken was at his best and anyone defeating him deserves full credit.

On a slightly unrelated note I had ken beating ali in the rubber so I consider him the best hw on the planet from 76-78.

 

It might be that I give him too much credit, Luf. I had him edging all his fights with Ali, Young, and Holmes.

 

There's more truth in action than in numbers, and Norton sure didn't fight like an old man.

 

I agree with you on the Young fight and his first and third fights with Ali. I go 50/50 on the Holmes one and give Muhammad the nod in the second Norton bout.