Send in your light heavyweight to beat Ken Norton

A prime Matthew Saad Muhammad from the title winning match against Marvin Pops Johnson from April 1979.

 

Michael Spinks who beat Holmes in a real fight, who beat Norton in a real fight.

 

Roy Jones Jr.

 

Sam Langford

 

Agreed. Mathew Saad Muhammad was a very rough customer in his heyday.

 

I do not think any of them would be favored against Norton.
If you make it same day weigh in-in ring at 175 lbs. max. like Saad, it would be evern more difficult.
Norton had most difficulty against HW bruisers.
Making them somewhat smaller would take away the threat of great power & strength.

We would perhaps have more luck taking a small HW & allowing him to de/rehydrate to 175 lbs., So Joe Louis against Schmelling might be a candidate.

Would a Roy Jones Jr. be able to elude Norton enough OR hurt him-maybe considering "roids?
Still doubtful.
Some of the best men who fought at LHW but weighed in the 190's would have a decent shot.
But I do not see them better than a 1/3-40% chance of a win.

 

ABC logic has been proven not to work in boxing.

Also, both faced very different versions of Holmes.

 

I wouldn't favour any LHW, certainly not whilst making 175lbs.

I think big, strong, high-volume pressure fighters, who are prepared to take punches to land their own, are nightmares for much smaller fighters.

There may well be HW, pure boxers who would beat Norton, that would struggle more against a/some top quality fast, mobile LHWs, because they would try to outbox the LHW, rather than walk them down.

There may be out and out punchers who would also beat Norton, who plant their feet & sit down on every punch, that a fast, mobile LHW could outmanoeuvre, avoid their big shots & steal a points decision against.

Guys like Norton & Frazier, who have extremely high outputs & who punch in bunches, whilst simultaneously moving their feet, as opposed to sitting down on, & applying maximum leverage to, single punches, and who are prepared to get hit to get into range and land their own shots, are nightmares for much smaller boxers.

No LHW can outmanoeuvre them for 15-rounds, KO them/dissuade with their power nor are any big enough to tie them up/push them off. What option/chance do they have to win? Practically non, imo.

 

I'm not so sure about that Jose Luis Garcia who only weighed 188 pounds managed to KO Ken Norton, now a few things to factor into is Norton was green at this point. And despite Garcia not being big weight wise he was very tall at 6'4.

But if Norton is fighting Light Heavyweights who are big at the weight, especially without same day weigh ins rehydrating close to being Heavyweights. Then there's quite a few who might be problematic for him the likes of..... Spinks, Moorer, Beterbiev, etc.

Basically any big hitters at Light Heavyweights who are big at the weight will pose a danger for Norton.

 

I would say they did yeah again if your talking about these big Light Heavyweights being able to rehydrate, then their chances of winning increase significantly. I like Norton alot as a fighter but against big punchers i would never be 100 percent confident.

 

I assumed we were talking about a prime Norton, which I always take to be the case unless specified otherwise.

As specified, I wouldn't pick anyone weighing 175lbs vs Norton.