Does Cooney take a prime Norton?

Prime Norton would present the same difficulty for Cooney as Spinks did.

Great jab , left hook , right hand and very hard to pin down herky jerky movement. Bigger as well.

 

Kenny had a glass mind.

Whenever he faced a really powerful puncher he seemed to freeze up and forget any semblance of his fight plan. The Shavers fight he went to the ropes immediately. Same with Cooney.
Against Foreman I would say he seemed ok until the 2nd round. Foreman was fighting at an uncommonly high level at that time.

 

I think the freezing up started after the Foreman fight, which is why I would give the pre-Foreman version of Norton a solid chance to beat Cooney.

 

As a movie buff, this made me laugh!

 

This

 

I think Norton takes him as long as he has Ralph Kramden in his corner.

 

The Norton Cooney beat was shot to pieces. That being said he had a tendency to become almost paralytic when hit by a really big puncher. Anything less he was ok but once hurt he almost transformed into a heavy bag just awaiting its pummeling.
A prime Norton could move and keep Cooney off balance and would have a very good chance compared to the delapitated version who lost their fight, but I think for the first few rounds he is a punch away from being lit up

 

The lack of Norton specificity could lead to international incidents, frankly. OP needs to be more careful.

 

I think this is one of the best fighters that Cooney can defeat. That left hand will get Kenny backing up and fighting cautiously. And hurt. And he'd better not throw too many of those looping right hands of his either.

 

Any version of Norton gets poleaxed by Cooney.

Norton can't fight on the backfoot because of the way he drags his right foot.

Norton has a tendency to freeze when he gets hurt by a big puncher.

A big 6'6 KO artist like Cooney is a horrible style match up for Norton.

 

Norton had a problem with big powerful guys like Gerry. Even in his prime Foreman and Shavers destroyed him. I think this is a good matchup for Gerry I like his chances. Lyle in his prime would be more problematic. He d be throwing sledgehammers and he could take a beating. That’s a pick ‘em.

 

Norton didn't freeze against punchers until he got knocked out by Foreman. He actually had a gameplan in that fight and had decent success in implementing it.

 

I'd go with Cooney being all wrong stylistically for Norton. I tend to think Cooney get's underrated now. He fell apart after the Holmes loss but he was top challenger, a huge SHW with a brutal left hook.

 

The Holmes fight took whatever was left of Norton's prime. I always thought he was robbed in the two Ali losses. Not sure if he sees the final round against Cooney, even in his prime. I think Cooney struggles with Young but wins if it's an 18-foot ring. not sure about Lyle, he was hot and cold. At his best he may just beat Cooney.

 

Name a fight where Norton got badly stunned in a fight and showed recuperative powers ? anytime he got buzzed he was like a deer in the headlights.

Norton had 1 round staying away from Foreman and then got poleaxed.

Norton doesn't have the style to do good vs punchers he drags his right foot so he can't fight on the backfoot and he doesn't have the survivability to survive bombs from big punching KO artists.

Cooney would ruin him at any stage in his career simply a bad style match up.