How Norton fought Foreman while he lost just before

I don’t know the details in the making but Norton was in the upper echelon of contenders which placed him well within title shot range. And the notion of an Ali vs Foreman fight was already inevitable. The REAL question is how did Jose Roman get a shot at foreman

 

It’s not that odd historically. You have your fighter step up big-time & beat a great Champion like Frazier (Foreman had beaten pretty decent opposition to that point, but nothing like Frazier), you want to reward them with an easy, stabilising gimme, before moving on to bigger fish.

 

I understand that perhaps an easy fight was warranted just to keep him active while also NOT jeopardizing a super fight with Ali. But I think a better opponent could have been selected than Jose Roman. Even chuck wepner or an aged Terrell would have been more appropriate

 

Would, “better,” have been more appropriate, though? He needed a soft touch after climbing the mountain to get his bearings.

 

Foreman-Ali took a long time to set up - not just the negotiations between the fighters, but also locating a venue for it. Foreman fought Norton while the arrangements for the Ali fight were still being finalized.

I imagine Norton was also selected as an opponent so that Foreman could make a "statement" by blowing out a guy that Ali struggled w/ twice.

 

After Ali beat Norton in their rematch,a Foreman-Ali match could have been made. Muhammad,after evening the score with Ken wanted to do the same with Joe Frazier before fighting Foreman for the title. Norton was the next logical defence for Foreman's people to take. A worthy contender after the Jose Roman soft touch.

 

A soft touch is fine. But a complete non-entity for a world title fight isn’t

 

Foreman didn't exactly exert himself getting to the Frazier fight. His record was littered with journeymen. He was more air-lifted to the top of that mountain.

 

Nonsense. Where are you getting that from?

 

How many ranked contenders did he fight prior to Frazier? I believe it was just Peralta (a former LHW, ranked near the bottom of the top 10) & Chuvalo, who had only recently reemerged in the rankings following his upset of Quarry. I don't think there's any doubt that Foreman was very carefully maneuvered to a title shot w/ a fair amount of record padding.

 

He also had the Wepner win.

 

Believe it or not, he was actually rated as high as #7 by The Ring shortly before fighting Foreman. (I presume he got there by beating Jose Urtain, who himself was briefly rated by The Ring prior to that.)

Incidentally, Wepner previously lost to Roman.

 

And wepner also precisely lost to foreman but seemed to get a second wind and was doing “ ok “ in 1974.