A Holmes-Norton observation

Sounds like biased journalism. Deceptive. For the record I felt Holmes won too and while a great fight I thought Larry won with a little more breathing room than the cards had.

 

One of the best heavyweight fights i ever saw.

 

Shame it was n't a younger Norton whom Holmes fought. A magnificent trilogy would have ensued. Score being 2 - 1. Not sure to which one,though.

 

Holmes would've beaten a prime Norton, barely, but it would've happened.

 

Very close fight. I have Holmes winning by two or three rounds,though.

 

Holmes won the fight for me it was close but not wafer thin as some think ( in my opinion) .

 

I had Holmes winniing, but not by the conventional wisdom. Most have him (Holmes) winning the 15th and breaking the deadlock with that round. I had Norton winning the 15th but still scored it for Holmes 8-7.

 

I thought Holmes had it won after 12, but had Norton winning the 15th.

 

I also had Holmes winning by 3 rounds. 9-6.

 

A great fight that was kind of three fights in one. The first 6, the next 6, then the last 3 rounds.


I think Holmes showed more superiority over the first 6 rounds. The next 6 rounds were not so clear and Holmes could of had a share of them. where as the first 6 I could not say that about Ken. The last 3 were a war and Larry perhaps shaded those.

I had it 7,6,2 Holmes last time I scored it.

Larry won rounds 1,2,3,4,5, 13, 15, Ken won 7,8,9,10,11, 14 with rounds 6 and 12 even.

Fought at a walking pace Holmes kept Norton at the end of his jab over much of the first 6 rounds. Norton pressed Larry with excelent pressure but was looking to walk him onto a right hand but Larry would change direction just before Norton could get off. Larry won those rounds in a shut out.

On occasion Ken would jab well with Larry but Holmes would double his up and dance away when things got close. Larry would have the last say on an exchange too. By round 4 Ken had a sore eye and forehead from one twos and jabs. Larry teed off on him when Ken got too close.

Ken might score with a heavy right hand or single counter hooks that were more telling than anything larry would land but he would wait for these openings and he was getting outscored orchestrating these openings. But Holmes was busting a gut keeping Ken at bay.

The next six rounds, from 7-12 Larry began to fade. At the same time Ken began to put two punches together at a time. He was evening these rounds up and bussier than he'd been before but never quite in control, though Holmes was clearly struggling.

The last rounds Holmes was forced to fight toe to toe. He just about clawed his way back on top at the sound of the last bell.

 

I think so too, especially if it was the best version of Holmes. The one who fought Norton in 1978 was supposedly fighting with a torn bicep muscle and wouldn't perfect his skills until closer to 1980. Also, Norton seemed to improve a bit as time went on as he was somewhat of a late bloomer. So I'm not so sure that Ken was too far removed from his best in 78' anyway.

 

Saw a recap video of Tua-Beabuchi. Showed the same thing...tua landing bombs the whole fight. Made it look like a robbery.

But if you rematch the full fight you see how the whole of the fight really played out.

 

IMHO?
Holmes won the fight with room to spare and, had they rematched soon after, Larry would have stopped him.
He outworked Ken in the fight, not to mention a 1,000 jabs right on the puss! He could have stayed away in the 15th IMO but Larry, knowing Ken couldn't KO him, waded in and let fly! Pride!
Larry had the fight won and had Norton wobbling in the 15th.
Norton, quite simply, didn't have anything in the tank in that last round to take Larry out.
Plain and simple.
My $0.02

 

Here is my post on the fight on the scorecard thread -

Took in Norton-Holmes last night. If I had seen it it had been at least ten years, and I didn't remember scoring it. I had seem the 15th round a number of times, of course, but really couldn't remember scoring the fight.

First off - Wow, what a fight. If I put it a notch below the Bowe-Holyfield trilogy it is just a small notch, certainly in my top-10 of heavyweight fights I have seen.

I took a few notes on a post it note which watching the fight while I could while caring for a six week old, lol, but here is my card.

Round 1 - 10-9 Holmes
Round 2 - 10-9 Holmes
Round 3- 10-9 Holmes but Norton started to do some good work at the end of this round, including a pretty huge left hand if I recall
Round 4 - Holmes
Round 5 - 10-9 Holmes Big Left by Norton, but overall I thought Holmes did the better work.
Round 6 - 10-9 Holmes, Close Round
Round 7 - 10-9 Norton, this was the very first clear round to me for Norton. At first I thought Holmes was taking a round off, but he was tiring at this point.
Round 8 - Norton, Close Round
Round 9 - 10-9 Norton, Pretty clear and one of Norton's better rounds, Holmes got on his toes and landed some solid blows near the end of the round but I thought Norton edged it.
Round 10 - 10-9 Norton, Norton the busier fighter.
Round 11 - 10-9 Norton, Huge shots by Norton in the second half of the round
Round 12 - 10-9 Norton...Holmes early but Norton with the more powerful shots to close the round
Round 13 - 10-9 Huge Holmes round. You can argue this was a 10-8 round, as Norton was stumbling around the ring to end the round and was close to out on his feet.
Round 14 - 10-9 Norton. Great bounce back round, to set up one of the best rounds in Heavyweight history
Round 15 - 10-9 Norton, What's great is this was the first time watching the fight that I noticed one Sly Stallone in one of the first few rows cheering the fighters on as the pounded each other around the ring. I scored this round for Norton, but very close

Final Card - 143-142 For Norton, but obviously no real problems with a Holmes victory here. Of the 15 rounds I noted that six of the rounds (1,6,8,11,13,15) were close, which is pretty uncommon of me, as I can usually find a clear winner. To be fair though the Announcer Col. Bob Sheridan scored about 10 of the rounds even. Interestingly enough I don't believe any of the actual judges scored any of the rounds even.

Great fight, highly re-watchable. Planning to watch and score more of Holmes title run fights.