Just How Great a Heavyweight Was Ken Norton?

The three officials in 76 gave the bout to Norton. One of them Arthur Mercante was probably the most highly respected boxing official ever to live. Scorecards were 8-7, 8-7 and 8-6-1. A very close fight. Can’t get much closer.

The fight was played live on prime time tv a few weeks later. A dozen or so experts, former great fighters etc scored each round. At the end of the fight their scorecards were tabulated. Result? A DRAW. Again a very close fight.

Note Ali was an 8-5 favorite going into the fight.

AP scored the fight 9-6 Ali. UPI scored it 8-7 Norton. Again very close.

The official commentators at ringside were known Ali haters. This needs to be taken into account. Red Smith and Dick Young.

 

Sorry. All three officials gave the bout to Ali. (Not Norton).

 

I mean ... he didn't suck.

 

Norton’s main issues were immobility due to his stance. Plus he tended to punch at times with an open glove.

 

IMO, he was a strong contender in a talented era who had his ups and owns like any contender. The "championship" was given to him by a self-declared then fringe entity as an after-thought to his victory over Jimmy Young.

 

Norton is number 26 ATG on Boxrec. I'd put him at maybe 22.
I think he beat Ali twice and drew the second fight. I wish he retired after the very close Holmes fight. I think he beat Ali in 76 and for me was undisputed til 78 and Holmes. He also beat Young and Bobick.
The Shavers knockout was unpleasant. And the Cooney beating was one of the most sickening things I ever saw in boxing. Tony Perez is the worst big time ref I ever saw. He risked Tommy Morrison's life against Ray Mercer. And John Ruiz against David Tua.
He did have a weakness against massive punchers. I'd rate him as fourth best of the 70s. 1. Ali. 2. Frazier. 3. Foreman 4. Norton.
Even the contenders were awesome in that decade. Lyle, Young, Shavers and others.

 

Norton was never hwt champion in reality. He was a top contender for a 5 or so year period in the 70’s. He came close to beating Ali in 76 but he did not do so. Thus he can’t be called hwt champion of the world.

 

In reality he never won a championship fight.

 

The thing is, Norton was on a bit of a roll. In later years he claimed that he lost his desire after Ali III, but in 1977-1978 he was talking like a super motivated fighter who wanted to prove that he, not Ali, was the best in the world. The Bobick fight really showed that. The Young he squeaked by was arguably at the top of his game. Then he finally, retroactively, got a belt.

We didn't really know at that point how good Holmes was. Norton hung with him and lost a close bout. For the next nine months boxing fans were salivating over the prospect of Holmes-Norton II. Even the Shavers fight was thought of as a bit of a fluke. Anybody can get caught, and all that. It was the LeDoux fight that, to me, showed that it was time to hang 'em up. And, yet, he still beat Cobb. The Cooney fight definitely didn't need to happen. I called that KO 1 at the time.

But, yeah, IMO he should have called it quits permanently after LeDoux. If he'd retired after Norton I, we'd be seeing threads asking who would've won the rematch.

 

That might be cause they were two VERY different Ali's. Frazier beat arguably the best 70s rendition of Ali in a quite decisive manner while Norton managed an SD over one of the worst versions of Ali.

 

ETM is a very good poster. He's just WAY off here.

 

I thought It was a close fight and fights that close are not robberies eg Leonard v Hagler .
On Mercante ,a great referee but ,like the rest of us, he was fallible.he had the Frazier v Mathis fight all level at the time of stoppage and ,
imo he should have stopped the first Frazier v Foreman fight earlier.

 

Ali was in bed with two broads just hours before the first Norton fight.

 

At least he would've been um... Satisfied?