If Mike gets dropped he loses. It happened against fighters 100x worse than Frazier. McBride? Williams? Douglas? Frazier would floor him hard as u say.
I picked Lewis, Bowe and Wlad. They're too big and hit too hard, and all are bad style match ups. Joe could beat Wlad and Lewis if he lands clean with his left hook like he did vs Foster, Ellis or Ali. He could also feasibly out-hustle and beat Bowe on points, although I think that's the least likely scenario of these three. He'd beat the rest.
I think FOTC Frazier would have been a significantly tougher fight for Larry Holmes than Ken Norton was. A lot of times Larry kind of took a break in the middle rounds, and Frazier would have taken huge advantage of that, and probably finished well. I do see Joe taking some serious punishment early on and in the later rounds...the Holmes uppercut might even floor him. Joe wins by close but UD.
EVERYONE but Johnson on that list would most likely dominate Smokin Joe. But I am sure someone will pull out the Joe>Ali>ATG HW from after the 70s
I think Larry schools Joe, Larry most likely took a break because of his injury possibly flaring up in spurts for the most part. I also did not see the Norton bout as a draw or robbery like some, I thought it was hard fought but clear.
I think Ken got warmed up too late against Larry, on my cards Holmes won the first six rounds straight. It's one of my favorite fights, and I've never come close to scoring for Norton, despite Ken's amazingly gutsy and heart-filled performance.
Ken's entire strategy was based on Holmes gassing. He said he started slow to conserve energy knowing Holmes had never gone 15 and thinking that he could then take over. Holmes stamina and heart held up however and Norton said later it was the wrong tactic.
I've got it in one of my mags i think. You can see Norton laying back early and after 6 you'd have to say he won the majority of the rounds thereafter but not quite enough in a competitive stoush.
They BOTH looked like champions in that fight. Like there was noone else in the world on their level...and yeah Kamikaze, that most certainly includes the huge amount of heart displayed in that fight.
Here ya go - Norton - Following the fight, a dejected Ken Norton met the press; and stated: “It was a close fight – but I thought I won. I was saving my energy in the early rounds; and planned to come on strong in the later rounds. This was a mistake in judgement. I guess I just got caught relaxing.”
I said it is not all that defines an ATG, it is certainly a key ingredient why is it you feel the need to apologize to me then wait for a chance to act like this, like I made it out like "Heart" is a bad thing or an irrelevant part of the equation. The hardest working guy usually comes out on top don't put words in my mouth.
