Norton disses the Louis era

I like Norton always have. He does real well in Joe's era but Joe would have knocked Kenny out

 

The Norton era was better than the Louis era.

Muhammad Ali
Larry Holmes
George Foreman
Joe Frazier
Ken Norton
Jerry Quarry
Ron Lyle
Earnie Shavers
Jimmy Young
Joe Bugner
Plus, guys who were top fighters on either end of his career, like Bonavena, Coetzee, Weaver, Ellis ... and on and on.

There just isn't a roster of heavyweights in the Louis era that is close to being that deep at heavyweight.

Hell, Ali, Holmes and Foreman tend to make up 30 percent of most all-time heavyweight top 10 lists. And Frazier isn't far behind.

Most heavys from the Louis era (late 30s and 40s) don't tend to bump heavyweight champions from the last 50 years on those all-time lists, either.

For example, I don't think the Jack Sharkey who Louis fought in the second half of the 1930s beats anyone on that list from Norton's era, and Sharkey wasn't that far removed from a heavyweight title.

 

I think the whole thing of athletes comparing their era to others in terms of quality is tiring.

Both in Louis's and Norton's era the best faced the best. No one pretended to be in camp for a fight he had no intention of taking and no one had their promotor becoming teary eyed with indignation because it's somehow injust to criticise his fighter for the many stupid things he says because he's supposedly bipolar.

No tough guys suddenly becoming snowflakes and no diva antics that would make Ava Gardner flush.

If Kenny kept to the facts like those, all good, but would he do better against Baer etc than he did against the punchers in his own era... Who the **** knows.

 

That is an interesting thing for Norton to say, given that he was knocked out by a guy that weighed 188 pounds.

 

It always goes both ways… Norton didn’t have a bad chin Ali was a goodpuncher… what does that make Garcia? A 188lbs mega puncher… like Marciano? NO that doesn’t count.