Ken Norton verus Joe Louis' opposition...

Common,

If Galento's prime were between 1989-1992, and his fight list consisted of:

-Old Foreman
-Orlin Norris
- Ray Mercer
- Riddick Bowe
- Loren Ross
- Joe Hipp
- Evander Holyfield
- Michael Moorer

Do you really think his record would look any better against that bunch?

 

No way does Tony Galento give Lennox Lewis fits the way that Ray Mercer did, particularly at the age of 35, when Galento was long retired.

No way does Tony Galento Compile the kind of record that Tua did and survive to old age with less than five defeats and the claim to never having been stopped.

List them, so that I can draw my analysis.

Well, I am confident that it would take quite a few meetings before Galento finally had his moment of glory.

Galento would be dealing with a 6 inch height advantage - something that none of Norton's conqueror's had to deal with.... Galento would be up against a man who's physical conditioning would be several times better than his own - something that was only marginal with the men who beat Ken.... Galento would have to find a weapon other than the left hook to beat Norton, given that most of Ken's losses came against right handed fighters, with the exception of Gerry cooney who Norton faced at the age of 38, and had a collosal size advantage....

 

Very good answer.

"Prety" has two T's and "alow" has two L's. And that's my only disagreement here.

 

This is not only an insult to Galento, but an insult to Joe Louis and others who fought him.

 

I don't have any particular expertise, but I know enough to know that your "mob promoted" slur was almost certainly nonsense. Everyone at the time and after, attributed his success to his natural gifts and a new found semi-dedicated attitude under Joe Jacobs, as well as Louis having eliminated most of the top men.
Galento had few friends, he was kind of obnoxious, didn't get along with managers and trainers. as for boxing fans he had a small following in New Jersey who watched him win some, lose some, for years.

I've read a few reports of his fights, a variety of sources, not just boxrec.

I won't just cherry-pick the bad or the good. All I know is that he had tremendous power and great determination and toughness, and not a lot of boxing skill and zero finesse. He had great experience though, and enough skill to land his punches, knew enough tricks to make life awkward for even the best heavyweight ever. And for a while, in 1937 - '39 he was a legit top fighter, and proved as much.

 

Anyway, I don't think Galento was better than Norton, just think he would be a major threat to him prime-for-prime.
I can imagine a determined, tough Galento absorbing many rounds of what Norton can dish out. And Norton's not going to avoid all of Galento's rushes, and hooks, and vicious attacks. Norton simply didn't fight like that.
I'd make it a 50-50 fight.

Norton was no superman either.
Outside of being a pain in the ass to Ali, he was a normal standard contender.

 

If we throw in the peak Galento 1937 - '39
I don't think Galento would quit against old Foreman. He might actually last the distance. If a badly out of shape Qawi and an Everett Martin can give Foreman a good fight, I think Galento could.
I don't think he gets blown away so quick by Bowe either.

I think Bert Cooper was a good fighter though. Just when he wasn't so good, he could be awful, not just losing but quitting and looking to get out of there. When not in 100% shape his mental and physical resilience was pretty terrible. Galento quit against the Baer brothers, ended his career, and that was the end of him. Cooper did it even more readily and against some even lesser fighters.

I do think Cooper was a very good fighter when he was right though. I remember seeing him on TV back in 1987, splattering Canadian hopeful Willie DeWit all over the ring in front of DeWit's home crowd. Cooper was still with Joe Frazier then. He was quite an awesome prospect.
(His next fight he quit again, against Carl Williams).


And when Bert Cooper was right, I'd make him a very dangerous proposition for a man like Ken Norton.

 

I can't take that even remotely seriously.
I'm not sure what the point of making such absurd statements is though.

 

Let's be honest about Norton - I have the film of the first Ali fight and the commentators had literally never heard of him - at all - they referred to him literally as an unknown club fighter - just some guy they'd found out of the marines - he was literally brought in as a soft opponent for Ali - and there were already tell tale signs in his record that he really wasn't all that so come on let's not kid ourselves that Norton came into the category of being a GREAT fighter

 

I haven't made any exaltations.
I've stated the obvious facts .... he was a ranked contender, he beat some ranked fighters (including the number 1 contender), and he decked one of the greatest heavyweight champions ever, he was a hell of a puncher .... all of which you probably agree with, since they are facts.

............ from those facts I draw the logical conclusion - he's dangerous to Norton.

Your contributions to the debate consist of statements that are neither facts NOR are they even things you believe - such as likening Tony Galento to Louis Monaco.


P.S. Have you seen the film of the Galento-Nova fight ?

 

Yes, you make a good point.
To be fair to Norton, the likes of Howard Cosell were ignorant and fickle. Firstly, they made out Norton was a nobody.
Then after Frazier, Ali and Foreman were clearly on the decline, Norton was suddenly built up by the same pundits as some great fighter - which he clearly wasn't either.
Norton was pretty decent, but his record against good punchers is severely lacking, and few of his fans want to accept that.

 

Haha yes - or don't want to - as the case may be - but yeah the commentators on the footage I have wasn't Cossell as chance would have it - but the guy sounded pretty knowledgable and also pretty reasonable but he'd never even heard of him but did give Norton his due in saying he proved himself an incredibly awkward guy to fight even for Ali