Anyone Give Norton A Chance Against Vitali??

Nope

Much bigger fan of Norton than Vitali.

But Vitali hits too hard. Yes, Vitali could throw a lot of arm punches, but when he lets his hands go, he is a bit too powerful

You can make a strong case for ranking Norton higher on an all time list. But H2H? Unless Vitali fights overly cautiously, i don't see it.

 

I'd pick Vitali. Norton's chances would be slim inho.

 

Imagine a bigger harder hitting Byrd with the footwork and mobility of Evander Holyfield.. Yeah , Vitali ain't beating that guy!

Lets be real about Vitali's resume , it doesn't contain a range of different styles from different types of opponents.

He fought and beat the same non-athletic plodder after the other. And most of them were hand picked to make him look good.

Thats the the luxury of tag team a division. He got to chose what style fit him the best.

Based on quitting against Byrd and looking simply awful against Johnson (missing 800 punches) its fair to say Norton is a bad style match-up for Vitali.. Lets be even realer , Vitali is no Larry Holmes in the skill dept. . In a 12 rounder Norton may have beaten Larry!

 

Even nostalgia can not convince of a scenario whereby Norton could win this fight.

 

I might pick Vitali to win this. But, Norton certainly has a decent chance of winning this. The Norton of the Ali fight is better than anyone Vitali fought. And, that includes the fat, 38 year old version of Lennox that Vitali lost to.

 

What scenario convinces you Vitali beats Norton?

 

the scenario that involves them both sharing a ring at the same time...how about you?

 

That scenario doesn't exist so you must be aware of another scenario that has convinced you of a Vitali win??

 

Does he though? He was an arm puncher and couldn't put away Briggs or Chisora or Kevin Johnson. He usually put opponents away on accumulative punishment. The only outstanding KO I remember is the Kirk Johnson one.

 

Vitali's power is overrated but even he would be too much for Norton. Norton always moves forward with his crab defense and Vitali doesn't mind backing up and throwing lots of straight shots and fighting tall from long range. Both have great stamina. The deciding factor would be that eventually some of those heavy shots are going to find the gaps in Norton's defense and he Will be clueless on how to back off and recover which was a constant issue in his career. Norton would do ok for a while targeting Vitali's body and taking away his jab with erratic movement and his own jab but that won't be enough.

Vitali by TKO within 7-9 rounds.

 

I never saw Vitali beat anyone remotely as good as Ken Norton, an ancient Lewis is the closest thing and he lost that. Norton by UD or stoppage if he opens up a cut

 

Vitali was clearly winning the Byrd fight and got injured. People make it seem like he was getting dominated and quit. As soon as Vitali lets his hands go Norton loses

 

Byrd doing absolutely nothing is why Vitali was winning. . As soon as Byrd adapted and found a rhythm , he was able to slip and counter Vitali easily with body shots.
Notron had a tremendous left hook counter punch to body and head. He was also hard to hit by fast outboxers like Ali and Holmes.

Byrd took on Vitali with no preparation and no gameplan. He still rode and evaded all Vitali's power shots with ease despite never having seen any footage of him before the fight.
Norton would be even harder to hit then Byrd was because of his mobility and upper body movement
Vitali decided he wanted no par of the rematch because of how hard Byrd to was hit. . His style wasn't good enough to land on nimble hard to hit herky jerky guys like Norton. He's too slow and too predictable

 

In terms of the class level, at which they each operated, it's night and day.

I really find it hard to back Vitali to beat Norton. Indeed, I can't back Vitali to beat Norton.

Norton W UD.