Ali did not "handle" him, it was dead even until the last round when Ali took it and that was the deciding round. The 2nd fight was very very close. Norton himself admitted he made a mistake not hustling in the final round to sway the judges.
I've always thought Ken got a lot of love in fantasy h2h match-ups? Hardly always picked or anything, but he certainly isn't treated like somebody that falls over for just any champ from history.
Agreed, Gerry Cooney was in the ring with a museum relic, only because his management did not want to risk their limited skilled fighter in the ring against a young ranked talented heavyweight, jeopardizing his title shot against Larry Holmes, Cooney was unproven, destroying ancient artifact fighters, Jimmy Young and Ken Norton.
By that stage, few people were paying close attention to Kenny. He looked terrible against Cobb---and that guy was made to order for him. Same with Ledoux. Another cannot select a better opponent guy. And most people thought Ledoux had ko'd him at the end. Hardly the credentials for fighting a prospect. especially a hitter. Kenny would have been stopped against Dokes or Page or Witherspoon at the time of the Cooney bout.
So true, some fighters do not know when to walk away. Breaking Muhammad Ali's jaw on March 31 1973, and working as Joe Frazier's sparring partner brought him much fame.
I don't think Dokes or Page had the styles to ko him, even at 38. They would have probably looked bad on their way to decisions. They were basically boxers, and boxers didn't do so great against Norton. Witherspoon would have stopped him in 2 rounds, even though I don't rank him as high ATG.
I am one of those people that thought (saw) LeDoux KO Norton. Fortunately for Norton there was a moron posing as a referee.
Norton was not that great.. he got blasted out easy by Shavers and Foreman... he did have nice physique though
I doubt whether Ken would have won that round no matter how he'd played it. At this point,Ali was faster than Norton and speed was the thing. This had changed by the time of their third fight when Muhammad had slowed up substantially in the three years following the second bout. In the third,Norton could indeed have won the final round had his corner been more astute.
I have Ken Norton solidly inside the top 20 heavyweights of all time. He did beat Ali 2 out of 3 with the loss being very, very close. His most damaging loss was to Shavers but he was past it by then and 1 loss doesn't define a career. I mean geez! Wlad lost to Ross Purity .