Question on the Quarry vs Norton fight

I just watch the 5th round again and for a moment it looked Norton's knees buckled briefly from a Quarry right hand, but I think Norton's foot may have slipped causing it to look like Norton' knee buckled. Norton did not retreat or show any distress immediately after the knee buckled, so I don't think he was hurt.

Quarry is my favorite fight of all time, but he was a shell of himself for this fight, a shot fighter, plus, it hindsight, brain damaged.

Jerry's last good fight was against Shavers. He looked bad in a tune fight prior to the 2nd Fraizer fight and looked simply horrible against Fraizer the 2nd time. From then on everything just got worse for him.

 

It happens here at about 1:48 :

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It's hard to tell if it was a punch that made Norton stumble (it looks like Quarry might've missed with the right, and then Norton stumbled). Either way, it looks to me like the ref's intention by stepping in may have been to stop Quarry and make Norton the TKO winner, but then when it appeared he made Norton stumble as that was happening, the ref quickly waved them back together to give Quarry one more chance.

 

Never mind how Jerry fought in this fight with Norton, he looked awful...bordering on fat, puffy and soft and sloppy looking...I think his last fight should have been Frazier II.

 

I've posted on this before, and felt that Jerry buckled Ken with that right just as the referee was stepping in to call a halt. Even if this is correct, and the third man had not intervened, I don't think it would have made any difference. Norton was in great shape and eager for redemption after Foreman. Garcia similarly stunned Ken in their rematch, and Ali drove through a hard right in their second bout which sent him swaying upright, but these were instances only of momentary disturbance, and his recovery was almost immediate.

Ali in particular was excellent at going for the kill in these situations, and he opted to continue moving and boxing on Norton as he had been doing. If Quarry's right had any potential significance on the outcome, the referee's intervention would not have allowed Ken sufficient time to recover as needed.

 

I think Quarry was too tired to even follow up with a combination anyway, but it shows again that a prime Quarry would have been a more difficult fight for Norton. Quarry was just too slow at this point to match Norton's combinations. Norton was a great combination puncher when he had an opponent standing in front of him. Knew how to find his way past the opponents guard.

 

Too much being made of it... Norton wasn't hurt badly and in no way was Norton going to get stopped in this fight. Quarry on the decline but I really think that this is pretty much how it looks had they fought a few years earlier........... I'm so sick of the Jerry Quarry threads to be honest, I feel it's my duty to reply to them though.

 

I advise you stop it, because you rarely have anything relevant to add. We get it, you think Quarry was just an overhyped white hope, time to move on.

 

He was moving in to stop the fight before Jerry unloaded that shot, and his momentum had already committed him to moving between them when he saw that punch delivered from nowhere. He got back out as quickly as he could.

 

I guess this is another case like Holmes's "perfectly timed" uppercut against Tyson when he got tangled on the ropes which allowed Tyson to land a free haymaker on his exposed chin. Wouldn't have meant a thing since they were well on their way to a loss anyway.

 

IMO, Norton looks better vs. Quarry and Stander than Frazier did. Quarry while past his best was up for this fight. Norton looked great.

 

if i remember correctly, Quarry looked shocking in this one a took a pasting......

 

I think a case can be made that this was Ken's best performance. (Of any length at least. Bobick was an anomaly for Norton, as Ken was actually a slower starter than Frazier otherwise.)

The one criticism which might be targeted towards Norton was that his power might be questioned, as his accuracy was impeccable. But his jab was as sharp as ever seen, he weathered a furious third round assault from Jerry with his back against the ropes, and was even displaying some good footwork and mobility with in and out movement.

1975 may well have been Norton's best year. 17 months later, Jerry provided ringside commentary for Norton-Middleton, and expressed late in their bout that, "He's (Norton) going to have to do a heckuva lot better than this to beat Ali!" Both Ken and Jerry were described as being 29 years old when they squared off. Now, it would seem that the final match for which Norton was under 30 was the win over Ali. For a while there, his true age was as much of a mystery as it was for Moore and Liston.