Anyone Give Norton A Chance Against Vitali??

His brother had better technique and therefore better power. He is efficient in his own way. But old past prime Lennox exposed some of those flaws.

 

It is. He literally stands upright and swings his virtually straightened arms from the shoulder.
To be fair, he does occasionally remember he has elbow joints and can throw a useful 1-2 (as well as, presumably, give his shoulders a break from being used as universal joints).

 

Really? I'd have liked to have seen Vitali counter off Norton's jab and overhand right.

Though, I very much doubt he'd have been able to pull that off, somehow.

 

Score cards from whom, the judges? Vitali never lost more than 3 rounds on ANY score card his entire career.

His height 6'7 1/2 inches, arm length, ( Which was longer than Lewis according to HBO ) and weight, combined with his activity, power and defense complemented by a high boxing IQ would take Norton out of his game. Trade punches? Sure, Vitali hits harder and take a much better punch. Norton has a suspect chin vs punchers.

Norton's track record vs punchers means he's in trouble here.

 

We all agree Norton matched up well vs. boxers his size and below. But how did he do vs Punchers? Awful, and Klitschko is both a boxer and puncher and one with an edge in all the important size numbers and durability. 250lbs vs. 215lbs. 6'7 1/2" vs 6'3". An iron chin vs a suspect one vs punchers. He could also intimidate, and Norton tended to freeze vs the big punchers.

Vitali is the better boxer, in terms of winning rounds. Iff you have to say that's because he's bigger, so be it.

Sanders by the way fought Rhaman with a leg injury that prevent road work and that was the best version of Rahman. Sanders > Cooney.

 

Reach is misunderstood. To use a classic example Tommy Burns said he could not reach Jack Johnson even though their listed reach was even. Johnson was too tall.

A few open secrets on reach, or what I prefer to call striking distance. Wide shoulders and long fingers do not count, it's the length of the arm. Vitali has the longer arm, longer than Lennox Lewis who had a listed 84" reach according to HBO arm measurement.

As you punch upward, you lose range. It's true, your max striking distance is at shoulder length. If you have to arch upwards, you lose it. Norton will be aiming up about 4 1/2 "here.

Vitali has the edge in striking distance in this fight, it would be evident once they were in the ring.

Ali as great as he was has issues with good jabbers at all stages of his career...Jones, Norton, Lyle, Young, Holmes. He also had zero inside game, next to no hook, and seldom went to the body. Ali could be out worked, a reason Norton beat him.

Assuming Vitali is cut is a rarity as he only had one bad cut in his pro career and never lost an AM match on cuts either. We are talking about 250 fights here, only one of which was stopped on a cut, and Lewis landed a reverse glove swipe over the eye region, which makes it debatable as to how the cut appeared. But you think cuts will play a role here?

 

I literally wrote that I thought Vitali would beat Norton in my first post Mendoza. Calm down, you don't need to rush to the Klitschko's defense at the first sign of trouble.

 

The way I see it is Norton just has the style to beat slick boxers, but the complete opposite against power punchers

 

I do for sure ..

 

Hide would have been creamed by Norton...if Larry Holmes couldn't knock Norton out, Hide couldn't. Norton would have taken longer than Bowe to do it, maybe 10 rounds.

 

I think hide hit a lot harder than Larry

 

8-9 top ten ring magazine opponents beat and up on the cards vs Lewis and Byrd does not equal miserable competition. Vitali was so good, he made it look easy. As a joe Louis fan Vitali have easy nights vs those who gave Louis trouble, and you know it.

Its not Vitali's fault the champion in Lennox Lewis did not want the re-match, nor it is fault Haye and Valuev balked at matches with Vitali. We have been over this before and what I wrote is 100% true.

Yes, Norton did out box Ali, I say twice. Others like Doug Jones was very close with Ali. Ron Lyle was ahead until a stoppage which some feel was early in round 11. Jimmy Young out boxed Ali, the judges just had an off night. And Ali didn't win a 30 second segment v.s Larry Holmes. Let's not use as Ali as an impossible man to box, the films say otherwise.

 

Ali wasn't 193 cm and Sanders' 193 cm looks correct.

 

Well Kenny Norton had the reflexes to counter Ali who was still the quickest heavyweight. It's a whole different level of speed. Vitali has size and a tough chin. I dont think Norton would be looking for a KO. I think he wins a decision.