Fights with the biggest skill differences

I agree with everything you said except for Norton still presenting problems. Whenever Ali was on his toes and dancing, Norton was virtually helpless until Ali slowed down. Ali was much faster, and had much better stamina when he was younger, and wouldn't have stopped. Tbh I think he stops Norton later on in the bout.

 

No worries, can’t agree on everything - otherwise I’d be suspicious of you / LOL, kidding,
I hear what you’re saying, when Ali danced….a lot things would change…I’ll still give Kenny some niggle value at the least,

Norton had an excellent jab and while Ali’s prime mobility and evasions would negate it considerably I think it still gets through to some extent / interesting to rate Ken against the 60s opposition that Ali did face.

 

Excellent post. Futch always said, he trained Norton to fight Ali, the way he thought Louis would've.

Also, I've always though had Norton not had that devastating KO to Foreman in his prime, he would've faired a lot better against punchers, mainly because he would've had much better confidence. He actually does decent in the first round against Foreman, so I just can't buy the "Shavers and Cooney beat any version of Norton inside the first round lolz" cliche repeated ad nauseum. What do you think?

 

I basically agree.

I’ve always felt that Norton did very well in the first round or so vs Foreman. He just appears to come apart under the first few decent punches from Foreman. Tbh, Ken was doing well enough to perhaps cause ever so slight concern for Foreman - but George was actually pretty patient, stalking, cutting off the ring and he eventually caught Ken moving away with a solid long right hand that set Norton on a slippery slope.

Do you remember George’s “free” left swing on Ken when the ref was between them to give a standing count ? George was baaad dude and that did Ken no favours - Foreman wasn’t even warned - WTF?

Yeah, without the KO loss to Foreman maybe Ken would’ve been better mentally equipped for Shavers and Cooney - who he was well past prime for anyway.

Funny thing to, the rag on Ken was that he also “froze” against big punchers - but he wasn’t so impaired or necessarily cornered by Shavers, he actually elected to bang along with his back to the ropes - bad policy as it was - and Ken got a few decent licks in before Ernie got him going with a power left hook.

Per Cosell, Ken was apparently looking to a rope a dope strategy to tire Ernie out. No, no, no , leave that sh*t to the only guy who knew how to do it, and cop the random bombs that did sneak through - that being Ali of course - and when he faced the Acorn, even Ali knew enough to get off the ropes quick smart after copping a few Shavers bombs.

 

Ken's punches did seem to bother Earnie a bit, but Earnie knew he was always going to come out on top in a situation like that. He also wasn't swinging wildly like he usually did. He tightened up his punches for the most post, and kept his punches short and sweet. Not sure I've ever seen him do that any other time.

And yeah I agree Norton was well past his prime by the time he fought Cooney and Shavers, and would actually favor a '73 Norton over both of them. He's never beating Foreman though, even Old Foreman unless a miracle happens then he might win 1 out of 100.

 

If Muhammad Ali can have some free fights on TV who the hell is canelo? I'm not saying he should fight for free, but PPV to fight a bum coming off a loss just shows how dumb some boxing fans are accepting that.

 

Paz did well in the opening round, Harding did well v Jones as did Hopkins in 93, Dell Valle floored Roy, Griffin gave Roy Hell until the DQ and getting blown out in the rematch too.

 

All fights in Britain were free up till the 90`s which is how Americans like Hagler and Tyson became so famous in the UK, PPV ruined boxing on a global scale.

 

Ali v Frazier 3 was the first PPV fight in history it was such a success it set HBO on it`s way to becoming a massive TV network and sporting channel. The fight was watched by a record global television audience of an estimated 1 billion viewers, including 100 million viewers watching the fight on closed-circuit theatre television, and 500,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO home cable television.

 

Smith v Rock.