Tim Witherspoon (Holmes fight) Vs. Ken Norton (Holmes fight)

Ken Norton was still an excellent fighter in 1978 as can be seen by the galant effort he gave a prime Holmes. But that doesn’t reverse the fact that he was now 35 years of age and had a career long issue with being hurt by big punchers. Witherspoon was green when he fought an older Larry in 1983 but he was also someone who blossomed earlier than most. He was roughly the same size as Norton but with a longer reach, more power, solid chin and a style that I think could have given Ken problems. I don’t see this as being a one way fight for either man but I’m leaning towards a 15-0 Witherspoon to take this either by decision or a late stoppage.

 

I'll go with Norton he was more active and had better workrate.

 

Picked Ken on the basis of him working in an entirely different manner than Holmes did, but in something like a SD or a razor close decision.

Witherspoon gave Larry all the problems in the world, with his slick Philly style, angle-closing crossguard, and lethal overhand combined with damn solid body punching to boot. He showed a snapping, tricky jab, and a tremendous heart. I think Holmes realized he is getting old in that fight. Very poetic, since when he was matched with the crossguard master of the previous decade, he was the young, hungry lion reminding Norton of his age.

What makes me lean towards Kenny is the fact that he is making this fight physical. Despite his awkward, counterpunching style, at that stage of his career he liked to work inside; he loved to shove, posture break, and off-balance out of that Armstrong-style cross armed defence, and string together combinations while bobbing and weaving. When he applied himself he still displayed daunting stamina, workrate, and pressure, and he could crack a wall with those body punches. Very sneaky shots to the liver as well.

Ken definitely lost some momentum after his failure to move on from the third Ali fight. Said he never trained as hard as before after the fight, except for the Larry fight, since Holmes knew how to turn it into a grudge match. It can be heard during the Randy Stephens bout that he was considered old, and the following Shavers fight did nothing to challenge the notion. He drew with Scott LeDoux, and gassed badly in the SD win against Randall Cobb. Funnily enough Scott was the one to remind the once granite Lyle he is aging as well, dropping him in the third round before losing a close split-decision.

Hence why I see this fight as so close. It would take a tad more mature version of Holmes to dance with the best of Kenny Norton.

 

Too close too call for me. I'm going to say a draw.

 

Great match for the facts (imo) that it would provide for a great stylistic mesh, and a highly competitive and very close fight.

IF Tim’s power doesn’t quite reach the threshold to abruptly unlock Ken’s chin or derail him in any significant way - I would agree with a very close nod to Ken.

However, I’m not sure how well Ken would cope with Tim’s power - which even if it doesn’t render a sudden spiral for Norton (ala Foreman, Shavers and Cooney), could still do some notable damage - particularly in terms of accumulation.

Great Fantasy proposition. Thanks.

 

Norton had a powerful jab but it was no Pinklon Thomas ramrod....which was one of the few times TW struggled with a key weapon....as far as styles Ken does not have a style to disrupt Tim's rythum but Tim had a style that Norton's people kept him away from and Tim is larger than most of KN's opponents and KN's style cannot retreat well so he has to stand and fight with the slightly bigger more powerful man....IMO TW has the power to put KN out easier than KN can put TW out

I like a motivated TW to beat KN by late stoppage or Decision

 

Would be a war and potential fight of that hypothetical year. No knockdowns but both men staggered at various times. I go for the school of thought that says Ken's superior workrate and conditioning would see him through by a narrow decision.

 

Off-topic, but I forgot to add one last note regarding Ken fading post-Ali III (lack of modern nutrition and "juices" aside): he was a dedicated, start athlete from a young age. Baseball, basketball, football, and through high school especially track and field. It definitely took its toll, despite Norton being a late starter to boxing.

 

Bump.
Experienced Norton outhustles Witherspoon for the decision, had more tricks at that point than that version of Witherspoon.
Prime for prime, I take Norton also, the reason for this is that, yes Witherspoon could fight in 2 different styles, he could box, but also put the pressure on, he was a better pressure fighter though and if he tried to box Norton, it wouldn’t work, Norton had the better of Ali over 3 fights IMO, who, even that version, could box better than Witherspoon, especially the version Norton beat in the first fight, and if Witherspoon came to fight on the inside, the way he did it was very similar to Norton, but Norton does it better, so whichever way Witherspoon chooses to fight wouldn’t work for him, Norton has better stamina and is stronger.
I do think that Witherspoon would be the one on the backfoot since Norton often refused to back up and also is the stronger man than Witherspoon, what Witherspoon did have was lighter feet, but it wouldn’t help him as Ali at 30 had better feet and it didn’t matter.

 

If it's 15 rounds, I'm taking Norton. Witherspoon was a uber talented fighter, but conditioning would be his one weak area. 12 rounds is much closer.

 

Witherspoon is one of those relaxed fighter like Roberto Duran. Those guys could always fight "fat" and not gas.