Cooney would always be wrong for Norton. I make the prime Lyle question a 50/50 shot. Also,a prime Jimmy Young would've shut Gerry out over the distance.
I don't think Gerry ever had "speed in spades." Power, yes. Speed, no. I think prime Page, Dokes, Tubbs or even Tillis would have made him look slow. He looked great teeing off on old men who stood right in front of him like these two. Jimmy Young gave him some problems but got a horrendous cut. Young was probably, by far, his best win. And without the cut Young may have made Cooney venture into the late rounds, where the result could have been in doubt.
You can't compare the 38-year-old "punch bag" Norton with the 30-year-old Norton. You're talking about punches landed on a punching bag opponent too shot to punch back. Cooney never beat any really good heavyweight. He just beat has-beens. Yes, he could punch hard, but that's all we can say.
Lyle wins in a multi-round slugfest. I don't see it going past the fourth round, honestly. Norton loses via quick knockout. Cooney had top-tier power and poor Kenny wouldn't be able to handle it.
I thought Norton was lucky to get a win against Cobb. The fight previous to that he was almost KO'd by Scott LeDoux. Should certainly have retired at that point. Previous to that, Shavers destroyed him in 1 round. Norton was no better than gatekeeper level, it's just there weren't many names around so his name was kept alive to feed off of. Cooney could punch but he wasn't paticularly strong and he wasn't durable. He didn't have much of a chin himself.
For everyone out there saying Norton still gets destroyed in one consider this: Norton made it to the 2nd round against a prime Foreman and was fighting more or less evenly in the 1st. Is their anyone here who thinks Cooney is better than a prime Foreman?
I think Cooney was all wrong for Norton as were most real punchers- Lyle was tougher but easy to hit with hooks - durable but not Cooney proof unless he can get to Gerry before he is dismissed
Norton would lose much later, like anywhere from 5 to 7 rounds. Ron would stop Gerry around the sixth, after enduring some of Gerry's leather early.
Same results. Norton didn't have a better chin and Lyle's ribs weren't less breakable a few years earlier.
I like Cooney against both. Cooney was just the wrong kind of fighter for Norton, and Ron was a very tough guy and hit hard but was very easy to hit, and remember Cooney broke his ribs, and was an excellent bodypuncher. To beat Cooney you need to be a slick boxer like Holmes or Spinks, or like Foreman who was unbelievably durable, and one of the hardest punchers of all time.
