Who ranks higher Witherspoon or Norton ?

I narrowly went with Norton. But the gap isn’t as wide as a lot of people here will probably say it is .

 

I think Witherspoon has more good wins plus being a champion with several title defenses gives him the edge for me.

 

Norton. Just better wins. I like Witherspoon but his best win is Toney Tubbs.

 

Whiterspoon's best win is Larry Holmes.

 

You can see it that way, but a majority of people on here don't agree. I do think it was an either-way.

 

He had one single title defense in his life LOL

 

Right. Still one more then Norton ever had lol

 

That is so not the point

 

I am going with Norton.

If you look at Norton's resume, he did not lose to anyone he shouldn't have except Garcia, and that was super early in his career. He had 2 losses to Ali but the last fight was a Norton win that he wasn't given. So 1 loss to the #1 heavyweight of all time.

He narrowly lost to Holmes who is widely regarded as a top 5 heavyweight. No shame there.

Nor is there any shame in losing to peak Foreman. Again a bonafide atg and top 5 or top 10 heavyweight of all time.

His other losses were to massive hitters in Shavers and Cooney late in his career.

I am a huge fan of Tim Witherspoon but his record is more questionable. No shame in losing a fight to Holmes. It was super early in his career and he gave Holmes all he could handle.

Losing to Bonecrusher Smith as an established and experienced fighter is indeed a pretty hard to excuse loss.

Witherspoon has some very close decisions on his record. An MD win vs Snipes, a MD win vs Greg Page, an MD win vs Tony Tubbs, and a loss to Everett Martin. Granted, 3 of these 4 fights were wins but the fact they were close is a bit perplexing.

Norton would beat Snipes, Page and Tubbs handily in my book. Plus, i think Norton would beat Pinklon Thomas too even though Thomas was very very good. Norton just matches up well vs boxers.

IMO Norton maxed his potential and Witherspoon did not. Norton did not lose to anyone he shouldn't have (except Garcia). Witherspoon did lose to guys he shouldn't have (twice) and had an unusual number of close decision wins vs guys Norton would have beaten.

Norton for me. You can make the case Witherspoon was the greater talent but Norton was more accomplished.

 

Hey JT, have some more, well.... respect

Remember that he's here, reading

 

I'd say Norton without a doubt. He was one of the greats of the golden age of heavyweight boxing, even world champion that decade. His three fights with Ali (in which I think he won two) and the very close fight with Holmes (one of the 10 best heavyweights of all time) speak for him. Witherspoon was a very good fighter, a two-time world champion, but he's behind Norton in my opinion.

 

Norton, Witherspoon has a deeper resume but no atg win

 

I voted for Ken Norton

 

He hasn't been here in almost 3 years unfortunately. Probably got spammed away lol. I think he'd be more distressed at how many times his name is misspelt

Not to mention people arguing his record while not having one iota of a clue about it