Well, Ive seen about 7 of Young's fights on dvd ,and was ringside in London when he made our Champ John L Gardner look crude ,so I think I am familiar with Young's style. After awhile you run out of excuses,and have to say," maybe I didnt want it enough"?
I have not seen Norton-Young, but from what I gathered, Ken utilized bodypunches for point scoring purposes. He did this later with Scott LeDoux, but got robbed of the decision despite all his hooks to the torso through the first several rounds of their match.
OK< Young did not spend half the Ali fight half outside the ropes. Did it twice I think. How can you give it to Ali on aggression, he barely hit Young. And how did you guys see all these Young fights? I loved to watch him box, but nevwer could find his fights on TV. Allways Ali, Norton, etc. Was he only fighting on cable maybe, I didn't have it when it first came out. Page fight was close, also, I thought he beat Occassio in the're rematch, I saw it again on youtube, and gave him the first one as well. Has any heavyweight ever fought as many past and future champs than Young. I mean, just about all the guys he fought on his downslide became champs.
And just about all Youngs close fights were with men on the downslide! Ali was 34 Young was 27 Norton was 34 Young was 28 Lyle was 35 Young was 27 The scoring for the 2nd Ocasio fight was 95-97 95-97 95-97. Which indicates a perfect unanimity among the judges, No wildly differing scoring there. The scoring for the Page fight 53-55 53-56 53-57. Again very close consensual scoring. Ever thought it might be you who isnt objective here?
Jimmy Young was one of my favorite fighters of the 70's, and should have been crowned champion against Ali...I don't believe in that **** about having to go out there and basically beat the reigning champion to a pulp to win the title...look at Willie Pastrano..he said in the book "In This Corner" by Peter Heller that he didn't believe in that either, and that you should be able to beat the champion by making him"come to you"..and even if it's by 1 point, you should be able to dethrone the champion.
I dont beleive a Champion has to be beaten to a pulp either, just beaten clearly, and three judges,one of whom was the referee didnt think Ali had been.Bottom line. They all voted for Ali ,70-68 71-64 72-65. End of story.
Young was a puncher's worst nightmare. Not only was he defensive, he had great stmaina and was a tough guy to stop. Unfortunately Young was also a fan's worst nightmare. If you haven't seen much of Jimmy Young, he'll impress the heck out of you with his head movement and defense, but he will also give you the impression he was holding back un-purpose. Its almost as if Young suffered form sparring partner syndrome, excpet in Young case he wasn't hit much. The result for the fans was little action. Many talk about Young sticking his head through the ropes in the Ali fight, but few remember Young had Ali stung in round 9. For all his skills, Young was not terribly fast handed. If Young had better management early on in his career, I think he might have won a title as he had was much fresher and younger than many of his most famous opponents. Regarding the Norton fight, Norton won it by narrow margin. Just score the rounds. Young could put you to sleep, then out of no where excite you. People tend to remember the exciting stuff years after the fact, but boxing is scored round by round, and when you do little, you don't win enough rounds.
So what? Anyone who has Ali winning that fight by 7 points is paid off, or in love with Muhammad. Me, along with most others have Young winning the fight.