who did haye beat as a heavyweight ? shot ruiz / horrible valuev ? ancient barrett ??? give me a break ....perhaps hayes movemet would off set kenny but in the end ken norton would find him and put him out .
The Ali, Foreman, and Holmes fights aside I don't believe Norton gets as much credit as he deserves, he did great in a stacked heavyweight era and only came up short against elite fighters and tremendous punchers, and even with the problems he had against big sluggers he had enough courage to fight several of them.
Of course not. I just find it humorous to pretend only ATG punchers had the ability to hurt Norton as a way to imply Haye couldn't.
A fair point. But I think using a fight where his stamina failed him due to his career being in the embryonic stages should probably be left out of the argument if we're talking prime for prime.
Im going to have to stop you there. A professional boxer and former amateur boxer whose life year in , year out is dedicated to boxing should not be ill-prepared to go the scheduled 12 rounds for fights in which you train for 12 rounds. Journeymen who can't dedicate themselves to boxing like guys such as Haye and who have to work jobs can go 30 rounds. Haye lost because Thompson beat him. End of story.
I was defending Norton's loss to Garcia. But since you mention it then the principle applies to both.
Either way you're talking about two men who were prospects when they lost those fights. If you think they were the equivalent of what they'd become five years later then you might as well judge all of their fantasy match ups based on those performances.
Haye would get an absolute hammering. Low workrate and poor stamina would result in him getting a pasting. If Carl Thompson could do it then Norton would toy with him. Haye's only chance would be to throw a wild hayemaker and hope for the best!