Who was greater: Ken Norton or Vitali Klitschko

Norton.

He landed his whale; Vitali failed to land his.

 

Vitali for sure, he was an actual champ with title defenses. Norton might be one of the most fraud champs in history considering he has never actually won a title bout. I don't see how one win for Ali makes up for the depth that Vitali has even if its not the deepest set of wins.

 

Vitali is top 15. Norton is top 25 or 30.

 

He failed to land a title that was won in a boxing ring.

 

Vitali is top 20- 30

AJ , Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois have better wins and achievements than Vitali.

Vitali beating Sanders is the same as Lucas Browne beating Ruslan Chagev

 

Norton may have had some underwhelming performances against Foreman and Shavers, but, his best was definitely better than Vitali's. He beat a prime Ali fair and square. Vitali beat almost nobody of note. Although Vitali did have some skill, it was really his enormous size and a good chin (in conjunction with dreadful opposition) that led to his success. I recently re-watched Norton-Quarry. Quite frankly, I never saw Vitali or Wlad come out victorious in a fast paced shootout like that. And, it isn't even one of Norton's best performances. The drop in quality heavyweight fighting over the last 20-30 years (Usyk aside) is as obvious as it is depressing.

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Agreed. I'd place Vitali somewhere between 26 to 30.

 

Gotta be Klitschko. Granted Norton’s win over Ali was better than any win Klitschko ever had. But I don’t think it’s enough to negate the amount of ranked opposition Vitali best or to offset what each guy had going on in the loss column

 

Ranked opposition is meaningless when those opponents wouldn't crack a top 100 list of heavyweights.

Norton had a great win and possessed great skills. Jab and hook.
Vitali had no greatness and he failed the passing of the torch fight. Hes clearly behind Norton skill wise.
Gotta be Norton.

 

Agree 100% ,,

 

Imagine how much time and energy you’ve devoted to the guy. He must have accomplished something.

 

Less time than you devoted to hating on Foreman and Morrison.

I merely sated an objective truth.

What sort of sadsack devotes his life to hating a boxing hero like Foreman.

 

Norton makes it closer with his efforts against Ali were he won one and arguably 2/3 but I still voted Vitali.

 

Anthony Joshua has ranked title defences. Unified champion. Better wins than Vitali.
He's only one of 3 guys in HW history to win back the titles in an immediate rematch.
Vitali lost to Byrd and ducked the immediate rematch.
Ducking Chris Byrd relegates Vitali below Norton.