Just How Great a Heavyweight Was Ken Norton?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by RulesMakeItInteresting, May 12, 2019.



  1. rodney

    rodney Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    FACT !!
     
  2. scartissue

    scartissue Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I saw the fight. Brown simply charged at Norton at the onset of the fight and Norton sort of stumbled into a corner when backing away from Brown's hard charge. Norton was not off his feet anytime during the bout.
     
  3. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I'm personally, super sorry I ever brought that up. I was wrong, dead freaking wrong. Apologies to all for such ignorance.
     
  4. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    Ken Norton was the 4th or 5th best heavyweight of the 1970s, behind Ali, Frazier, Foreman and probably Holmes.
     
  5. klompton2

    klompton2 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    He got dropped hard by Harold Dutra as well. So hard he fell face first into the mat and when he tried to get up and he fell backwards into a corner again. Aaron Eastling also dropped him in addition to Jose Luis Garcia. Several other guys wobbled him badly. Norton simply didnt have a great chin, no two ways around it.
     
  6. Saad54

    Saad54 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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  7. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    Beating (a coked up, washed-up, whatever) Quarry in a boxing ring in a professional fight counts for more than some alleged KO Quarry scored in a gym workout.
    Factor in you're talking about a 16-0 Norton and a vastly more experienced and world-ranked Quarry (with over 40 professional fights), the feat is even less remarkable. Not that it's worthy of remark much at all. Funny things happen in the gym.
    Great gym fighters are a dime a dozen.

    Anyway, Garcia KO'd Norton in the actual fight, and Garcia had only had 15 fights himself, so it's Garcia, not Quarry, who deserves some acclaim.

    So .... Norton turned down fights with Quarry and went off and beat Muhammad Ali, which Quarry couldn't do in a million years.
    Beating Muhammad Ali is a big deal.
    Quarry's best win is Floyd Patterson (if you agree with that score).
    Imagine what a prime Patterson would have done to Quarry ...... imagine a prime Quarry against prime Machen, for that matter.

    The only thing Quarry has over Norton is the drastically different results in how they fared against Earnie Shavers.
    The excuses for Quarry are laughable.
    He had 2 chances each against 2 of the absolute elites (Ali and Frazier) and he was completely outclassed at least 3 times out of 4 (some people seem to think he did well in the first Frazier fight, but except for a good 1st round, not really..)

    Norton actually beat Ali and gave him tough fights in 2 rematches. He also gave Holmes a hard fight, whether you want to admit it or not. He was destroyed by Foreman, of course.
    Still, it's a better record at the elite level than Quarry has.
     
  8. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    I always thought of Quarry as kind of a crybaby; he'd get rightfully tko'd and throw a fit. He was a very good puncher though and he indubitably showed heart. I think Tex Cobb is an analogue, except Cobb was an arm puncher who laughably stopped an old man Shavers. It was nowhere near an actual knockout, Shavers basically gave up. The Quarry ko of Shavers... I was impressed when it happened and I remain so. Even then Shavers was the most explosively powerful puncher in the world. Of course it's possibly just a lucky Quarry punch.. nothing else explains that ko to me more satisfactorily....it was a jaw dropper back in the day yo.
     
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  9. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    Shavers was just one of those fighters who was a deadly puncher but very vulnerable himself.
    A good win for Quarry, no question.

    Quarry was a warrior but he's always been overrated, and the excuses for his losses are a joke.
    His best credentials are, and were always, a DRAW with Patterson (which was a gift to Quarry) and a WIN against Patterson (which should have probably been a draw !) ...... and Patterson was certainly already past his best.
    Quarry's LOSS to Ellis was a fair decision.
    That was prime Quarry's level.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2019
  10. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    It's too bad about Ellis' chin. I really liked his boxing style. Frazier and Ali ruined him.
     
  11. rodney

    rodney Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Norton had absolutely no chin at all.
     
  12. RulesMakeItInteresting

    RulesMakeItInteresting Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    He did take the best of Ali... Though I guess that's debatable given Ken's goony defense.
     
  13. Saad54

    Saad54 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    You can throw all that out and just look at the Foreman fight.

    Lyle could certainly bang.
     
  14. klompton2

    klompton2 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Raw power is only part of the equation. Plenty of guys were pure punches that couldnt get that power from point A to point B. My point stands. The ONLY KO that Lyle got from the time he started fighting legitimate contenders anywhere near their prime until he was out of the title picture was Earnie Shavers. Shavers wasnt exactly the greatest HW in the world at any point in his career. The idea that Lyle was this feared guy that the best were ducking is pure bull****. He was in the mix but when Earnie Shaver is the best win on your resume your fans claiming guys like Frazier was ducking you might as well go jump in a lake.
     
  15. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    ..... and Ron Lyle is arguably Quarry's best uncontroversial win in his whole career.
    That's something else Quarry Fanboys should note.