Doubts on Norton

His KO lose to Cooney is a joke he was close to 40 yrs old and showed he was shot long befor that.
The loss to Shavers had him coming off his last hurrah great performance against Holmes. Frankly I dont think his heart was in it anymore. He got caught by a good liver shot against the ropes that helped seal the deal. I dont know if he could have ever beat Shavers or not. He would have had to nullify Shavers forward momentum which is up for debate. The loss to George has no excuses as George was slaughtering everyone at the time.
Ken gets a bit of a bad rap in my opinion. The man was a superb fighter

 

Besides his one win over Ali his resume is thin. That’s my reason for a lower ranking. Imo he just matched up well w Ali and Holmes

 

What damages his ranking were blind judges mainly. If has 2 out of 3 over Ali, Jimmy Young, Jerry Quarry and honestly that fight with Holmes could have gone either way. Just sayin if Kenny was more of a house fighter those are Ws.
He was technically very good defensively, strong and very quick. I believe his loss to Foreman shouldn't drip to him too low. George was a terror. Shavers and Cooney were post prime.

Remember he beat the mighty Tex Cobb.

 

Those are two of the 5 greatest in history. Jimmy Young was quality win at that time.

 

The jimmy young win wasn’t all that special. He barely won (some would argue he didn’t). It was a good win but when you’re talking about top twenty all time you should have five solid wins at least not two
Quarry was a good win as well. He was old but still a good fighter

 

Jimmy Young did well vs Ali and went on to beat Foreman. He was hard to look spectacular against.
Had he received the Championship in 1976 his career certainly plays out differently. Taking the crown from perhaps the greatest heavyweight of alltime would have given been worth a few slots. I consider that an injustice. I'm judging him on his boxing soley not popularity. Just my opinion.

I've always respected the guy. He fought alot of good fighters. He was intelligent and class in the ring and out.

 

Not knocking him just giving my reason why he’s not in my top 20. I don’t like disparaging guys. He was a warrior and an interesting fighter

 

Its all good. I haven't done top 20 recently. I guess it depends the criteria.

 

I don’t factor his defeats to Cooney or Shavers into his ratings. I think he was probably a top 25-30 heavyweight all time . A solid contender who mixed it up with a lot of good/great men and had varying results, but mostly good.

 

I think that if he had beaten one guy like Shavers or Cooney, then a lot of people would rate him higher, even notwithstanding the three losses to big punchers.

 

I have Ken above every heavyweight title holder today. He's holding fast at #20.

His two victories over Ali (especially the first), as well as his beating prime Jimmy Young and giving prime Larry Holmes the fight of his life are more than any heavyweight's done since at least Wlad.

He lost to three of the top five most powerful punchers in history, big deal.

 

He beat Ali 2x really, and holds victories over Jimmy Young and Jerry Quarry as well. Nothing to be ashamed of. I think he, like Quarry holds victories over a lot of guys that were actually ranked well when he fought them.

 

Beat Ali once. I don’t give him credit for the third fight. Was a very close fight but I had Ali winning (haven’t watched in some time so no idea if my opinion would change today). Even so if he was so good he should have fought and beat some other contenders of the time. Second best win was Quarry in what was really his last serious fight. Like I said not knocking him but the resume is thin

 

He's one of those weird guys where he could potentially beat excellent fighters like Ali, Holmes or Holyfield but I'd also pick some much worse fighters to beat him. Eg Shavers or Tua types