Send in your light heavyweight to beat Ken Norton

It always made me kind of sad, no pun intended, but in a way it made me a better parent, maybe overly protective at times. I sometimes wished that I could have met Matthew Saad Muhammad, and that we could have became friends, he appeared to be a good man and human being, I hope he is at rest.

 

Yeah, I am rethinking my Roy Jones Jr call. Your last paragraph makes all the sense in the world.

You are probably right. I also tend to underrate Norton somewhat but he was only vulnerable to the biggest of punchers. And no LHW (or HW for that matter) throws like Foreman, Shavers or Cooney.

 

Best shot was Archie Moore.

 

I remember his coach saying something about him sparring heavyweights on roughly equal footing as of the pre fight programme. Whether he was talking about 180-190 guys who were a little to big for light heavyweight or full fledged 210+ heavys makes a big difference in the outcome.

 

Good on you for being open minded.

Put simply, if a fighter can't hurt Norton, and hurt him badly, they're in trouble. There's no way I can see any LHW who can't badly hurt Norton, equalling, let alone surpassing, what 2 of the greatest HWs of all time could do, when they broadly fought on even terms with Norton.

Therefore, the question is whether any fighter weighing <175lbs the day before, could badly hurt the Norton who went 4-fights and 54-rounds vs the 209-221lbs Ali & Holmes without being KD'd, let alone KO'd.

Modern day LHW's most often weigh in the 180's on fight night. Bob Foster was 6ft 3ins & arguably the hardest punching LHW of all time. He weighed in the 180's vs Terrell, Folley, Ali & Frazier and couldn't put a dent in any of them.

It may be an overused axiom, but styles really do make fights. Norton is vulnerable to huge punching HWs. The best version of Norton is a nightmare for any fighter who can't immediately hurt him with a single punch or combination.

 

I loved Saad but he got hit way to easily .. Norton would have destroyed him ..,