'In Joe Louis's day they were slow and they trotted around. In our era, Ali was a boxer, man, very quick. And nowadays, fighters are bigger and stronger. But in my opinion the fighters in our era, in the 70s, were the greatest group of fighters ever assembled.' - Ken Norton https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CJNDNvs9o/? Easy there Kenny, Louis would’ve ended you in 2 lol
Surely Kenny didn’t say that. Maybe they accidentally quoted some nondescript named Joe Norton or a Bob Norton? Otherwise, back it right up Kenny.
Is Norton seriously making a size queen statement here? As we all know, size is the least consideration when measuring up boxers.
In his defence, he himself had the luxury of fighting in the last era where rules of physics did not exist: a 220lbs guy who liked to dehydrate was actually the physically strongest boxer ever born. The guy to topple him was hit nearly 40% of the time career-wide, but actually possessed the greatest footwork ever caught on film. These absolute titans were beyond the puny physical realm...
Joking aside, to be fair to Kenny, the context was an interview shortly before he died. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/sep/19/ken-norton-jaw-breaking-fighter So when he's saying, "fighters these days" being bigger and stronger, he's referring to the modern guys. He's not saying his own era's guys were superior to their predecessors because they were larger. On the bright side for the modernists, Kenny believes that modern guys are bigger and stronger. So it should be OK for 70s fans to agree with him, rather than needing to argue that 70s fighters were bigger than their actual sizes.
The 70's guys had more solid frames. Bone was denser back then. Muscle put on lifting weights is not functional strength. They had mugger strength back then. Have you ever heard of tyre iron Johnson?
Of course. Like Rocky, they were big-boned fellas. Everyone's bones were chitinous networks of carbon nanotubes back then.
Norton was cooked for Shavers and Norton. We won't bring up Marciano and Louis fans don't bring up Shavers and Cooney. Just because Foreman got Kenny out of there in two rounds doesn't mean Louis does. He's the bigger man. He wasn't the bigger man against George. That being said an athlete denigrating his predecessors doesn't sit well with me.
If Norton thought Povetkin was tough, wait until he meets Joe Louis. More chance of him failing to finish the first round than seeing the end of the fight.
I made a thread recently that was a little tongue and cheek, about Norton losing to Povetkin in every single universe I was just making another joke about it