KEN NORTON 'His Own Worst Enemy'

Yes. Dunn basically won the fight by staying on the outside and using his southpaw jab to good effect. Williams' successes all came when he was allowed to move inside and go to work, but Dunn was reluctant to let this happen and content to keep things at distance. Not a bad win for Dunn this, one of his better ones.

 

Thanks very much for this!:good

Both Ali and Holmes rated wiliams a very good fighter. Holmes went so far as to say tiger was good enough to be a champion and larry never gave anyone much credit. From what I have read tiger was too suspicious by nature to help himself move forward and therefore did not get the breaks. He became a "who needs him" kind of contender. When I traced wiliams record I could not believe dunn beat him, that was a great win!! Tiger was a real big lump.

I have met old soldiers from the paras who knew dunn. he was quite a character by the sounds of things..

 

It's great to hear from fellow Norton fans! Norton and Foreman were my two favorite 70's heavys, but nevertheless I think I'm capable of an unbiased assessment of Ken. I guess it was Norton's personality that I liked, because there were some aspects of his boxing that made it frustrating to be a fan of his.

They always said Ken was a great all-around athlete in school, but as a fighter I didn't always see the versatile athleticism that might have made him better. Don't know if it was mental stubborness or physical limitations, but Ken seemed unwilling to change his style, regardless of who he was facing. Standing in front of Shavers or Foreman was foolish...both of those guys MADE Ken back up, which wasn't a bad idea, but you have to be on a bicycle with guys like that, not just stepping backwards.

Howard Cosell commented on Ken's stance many times as "crab-like"...I used to enjoy it at times, but often it seemed misguided, as it didn't put his hands in position to punch.

Probably Ken's bigger problems were mental though. I think he was overly respectful of guys who couldn't really hurt him, such as Ali, especially in '76. Ken could've walked through what little zing Ali had in his attack at that point, but he remained so cautious. Frankly I think he -like Shavers after him- could've knocked Ali out with a sustained attack, but he let Ali con him into thinking he was dangerous. Ken also should've known to never trust judges, especially against Ali, who always had every judge and referee in his pocket.

Still, Ken won that night in '76 and I don't really think it was all that close, either. I think Holmes did beat Norton though and that wasn't as close as the judges said either.

Honestly, I think boxing history was seriously damaged the night Norton lost to Ali. People love to believe that Ali was vastly superior to the competition in the 70's, and that is hardly the truth. In fact, what made the era so great was the closeness of the competition. IF Norton had properly won, the world would recognize the true balance that existed then: Norton having Ali's number, Ali having Foreman's, Ali and Frazier neck and neck, and Foreman having Frazier and Norton as playthings. It was very balanced. Holmes actually was the best in my opinion, would've beaten them all that decade if given the opportunity.

Ken Norton, despite my having criticized him, is still my 2nd favorite fighter of all time. I miss him and I really wish boxing had treated him better at the time. He deserves to be rated higher than he usually is.

 

:roflOh Gawd! Diane Bobick it is! (What'll Holmes say if he finds out he lost the Olympic trials to a girl? What will the US Navy say when they find out they were represented by one in Munich?)

 

atschYou're right! (Maybe we should call him Diarrhea Bobick because of what happened when he got hit by Stevenson, Norton, Knotze and Tate.)

 

In the ABC Superstars competition during the 1970s, his all around athleticism was on display, and he did prove to be a better contestant than Frazier. (In fact, I'd say he was the first boxer to demonstrate some good all around athletic prowess on that program, as well as some easy going humor.) Later, he did some stunt work on "Circus of the Stars" not a program I watched, but he was featured in some commercials for it.

 

excelent post, welcome to the forum.:good I agree that people love to believe ali was vastly superior to the competition in the 1970s when the truth is it was realy very close. what made the 70s heavyweights so competative was that ali had declined from his prowess in the 1960's. With manila out of the way Ali was a prety weak champ.

 

True. Also,Muhammad Ali may have motivated himself to win the title back from Ken in a fourth fight.

 

John Conteh won the 1974 competition.

 

I knew from you that he had won, but had forgotten it happened that early. (It was a competition I watched very sporadically. I didn't know Jerry Quarry had been a participant until years later. I wasn't really a fan of boxing yet when Conteh did this.)