Jimmy Young vs Ken Norton best chess from the 70s ?

I can remember scoring this fight once, but I don't have my notes anymore. Despite being more of a Norton fan myself, I thought Young just about deserved the decision. I think I had it something like 8–7 for Young. One round I gave to Norton was pretty much dead even, and I watched it two or three times. Maybe I was a little biased towards Norton...

Anyway, I also think it was a bit closer than Holmes vs. Norton.

 

Close fight.

I personally gave it to Norton who wisely accented on targeting Young’s less elusive body.

Young’s offensive output wasn’t exactly ideal but when he did throw with decent intentions, he could land very clean and make his opponent, no matter their own quality, look somewhat clumsy.

Love him or hate him (I’ve come to better appreciate him over time) and putting his less stellar career performances otherwise aside, Young was on quite a roll during that period of his career.

 

I honestly think about half this forum has never been punched by a grown man in the ribs or belly and when they see it during judging a fight, they essentially don't register it equally to a clean power shot to the head. They're conditioned not to count it the same, because it doesn't catch the eyes like a head shot. The commentators help with this conditioning. Which is...wrong. It wasn't popular but I pointed out Bryant Jennings, for example, had the scores closer with Wlad than people were saying because they were suffering from body-shot-blindness. The people who think Young got straight-up jobbed out of this one, the way I remember it, it's like they didn't even pay attention to Norton's body shots.

 

Excellent post.

Effective bodywork is often unduly over sighted.

I love and fully appreciate well executed body offence which should be justly scored even if not always as dramatically impacting as head shots.

For a dramatic example of Norton’s body work we saw him basically fold Ali in half with a single vicious punch to the body in their rubber match.

Ali was singularly renowned for his ability to absorb body shots (Norton actually said that hitting Ali to the body felt like punching a slab of concrete) so for Norton to fold Ali like that was really something.

Tbh, I’m not sure if a punch landed to the body as opposed to the head (hypothetically of the exact same power) is officially scored the same…especially if the degree of difficulty landing on the specifically targeted area is also accounted for.

I’m not saying how said punch should be scored either way - certainly effective body work should eventually reward itself in so far how much it ultimately takes out of the opponent and makes him more vulnerable in the later rounds.

When Kostya Tszyu wasn’t having quite the success to the head he would’ve liked, he often wisely targeted the body at the same time ultimately reaping outstanding results aside from the points scored for the punches themselves.

I think his fight vs Hurtado was one prime example of same - in which KT landed a number of hellacious body punches in the process of breaking Hurtado down.

 

I scored it a draw. Great fight. Young is definitely an underrated fighter, he went toe-to-toe with Ali, Foreman, and Norton.

 

Jimmy Young vs. George Foreman is the best chess from the 70s

 

My post from "the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread."

Ken Norton vs Jimmy Young

Round 1: 10:9 Young
Round 2: 10:9 Norton
Round 3: 10:9 Young
Round 4: 10:9 Norton
Round 5: 10:9 Norton
Round 6: 10:9 Norton
Round 7: 10:9 Norton
Round 8: 10:9 Norton
Round 9: 10:9 Young
Round 10: 10:9 Young
Round 11: 10:9 Young
Round 12: 10:9 Young
Round 13: 10:9 Young
Round 14: 10:9 Young
Round 15: 10:9 Norton

Total: 143-142 Jimmy Young

A lot of people say Young was robbed in that fight. Even tho I scored it for him, can't see a robbery here. Close fight that could have gone either way. I marked rounds 1, 4 and 11 as very close and gave them 2:1 to Young, so if I flipped it, Norton would be a victor. Overall very good scrap, probably the last time we've seen prime Jimmy Young. Loved his counters and straights. Norton on the other hand put on a beautiful display of body work in the middle rounds, but for some reason abandonded the tactic later, which lost him the fight on my scorecard. If I was to socre it by rounds it would be a draw: 6-6-3.

 

I, too, saw this for Jimmy Young but I concur that it was not a robbery. Just a close fight … someone had to win, and to a degree it comes down to what you like (and reward) as a judge.

 

Had it 8-7 Norton, but always said I would take a second look at it, especially the final round.

 

My thoughts exactly. Thought Young very narrowly won it. The ref, the man closest to the action said: "If I had had a vote, I would have voted for Young."

It doesn't even come close to meeting the criteria for the robbery where the official winner lost so decisively, no credible case could justify the scorecards.