Vitali Klitschko vs Ken Norton

bringing up a boxer who wouldtn have got a title shot in Nortons time isn't exactly doing you favours.

 

Norton's chin, whilst he was really active, went to 3 boxers, 2 of them the hardest hitters in history.

so, no.

 

One is a straight up bean pole with zero head movement , zero upper body movement , who can only punch in straight lines.

The other is a circular mover with a herky jerky , hard to catch clean style.

Vitlai would land nothing of significance on Norton. He Wasn't a pressure boxer , nor has he the power needed to stop Ken.
And the power he has would be greatly reduced by Norton movement.

Chris Byrd laughed at Vitali's best efforts. He never fought another elusive mover again in entire career.

He would simply look like an utter baffoon in there against Norton.

I see a late stoppage here for Ken. Accumulative damage / exhaustion stoppage for Vits.

His durability is overrated beyond belief. Its based on literally nothing . He has never once been involved in any war and walked through the type of punches that label people with having an iron chin.

The opposite is true actually. A touch off Sanders punch sent him running across the ring. Literally ran for his life in the other direction. The anecdotal evidence does not lie.

That is not the behaviour of an iron chinned fighter. Therefor he not going to walk down Norton and Norton is going to get off first all night long.

 

I'm picking up a fair bit of what you are putting down. Vitali did not have the type of explosive power that Norton was vulnerable too, nor the early pressure. He's more of a wear em down guy that's predictable and at times he's a bit of a plodder. Norton would be very difficult for him.

 

Garcia and ****ey could crack, true.

Norton's combined total of less than 12 rounds survived in his 4 knockout losses gives me supreme confidence in surviving Vitali, especially since Vitali is no Garcia.

And with Ken's track record against other punchers of the era like Frazier and Lyle, what's not to love?

 

Interesting match up. Vitali s heady handed but not the Foreman/shavers/****ey quality of explosive puncher. At 80" Norton actually had the longer reach and better jab. I can see him busting Vitali up with it. That being said, I still favor Vitali.

 

If Norton makes it out of the first couple of rounds I pick him to stop the arm puncher. Vitali is either getting him out of there early or not at all. Norton has the power to stop him.

 

Norton was a shot fighter when he faced Ledoux.

Norton gets koed by aggressive ko punchers like Foreman, ****ey and Shavers. Wlad is not an aggressive puncher.

Briggs fought a shot Foreman. Foremans blows were as slow as molasses that night and lacked steam. Saying anyone hit harder than THAT Foreman is not saying much.

 

Vitali steamrolls him after a few rounds.

For being such an arm puncher, Vitai sure did KO a lot of guys.

 

Who's Wlad and why are you commenting on him?

Or can you not tell the difference.

 

atschatschatsch

Are you high? When Lewis uppercutted him the ice jumped out of my drink from the seismic wave. And Vitali didn't go down, he fought on.

Dino needs to let go of his Klitschko obsession.

He and Herol could go to therapy together.

 

It's gratifying when a poster whom I respect ,while not neccessarily agreeing with me, does not dismiss my pick out of hand,and gives some credence to why I made it.:good

 

Vitali grinds Norton down. Too much height and reach and he was a great outside boxer. Norton doesnt come out after the 8th round.

 

One point on Vitali's reach,
Wingspan -79 inches
Length from armpit to the end of the fist- 29.5 inches
The reason Vitali doesnt have a huge wingspan is because he has narrow shoulders and small hands for a heavyweight, i think his fists are only 12 inches. However his arms are very long, Lennox himself commented that his reach gave him problems in their fight.
If you look at the tale of the tape Lewis had a 5 inch advantage in wingspan with his wider shoulders and bigger hands, but as far as armlength goes Vitali was even to Lennox, possibly even slightly longer. Vitali is very oddly built, I joke that he's Frankenstein's monster, all odd parts that dont match up

 

Oh i'm a long way from dimissing your pick. I truly think Vitali doesn't have that "explosiveness" both power and aggression wise to blow Norton out. So we are left with an open match. Prime Norton was usually hell on guys that could not get him out of there.

It would be a fascinating match. Norton has a win over Ali and basically fought Holmes to a standstill, there was almost nothing in it. Does Vitali have anything to match these two wins? Nortons well and truly proven. I take very fleeting notice of the Shavers and C00ney ko's, the guy was 35 or 36 and ready to leave the sport. That only leaves Foreman and Garcia. He avenged Garcia and Foreman turned the trick on Frazier and possibly would have on other ATG's.