Duane Bobick

Bobick was exposed by Stevenson at the '72 games, and Norton finished him off after a long effort to rehabilitate Duane's image. Bobick just didn't have what it took to hang with the good heavyweights of that era, which is really no shame. I don't see how a more graduated apprenticeship would have changed his lack of handspeed and questionable chin. No matter how he was handled, eventually he would have had to step up and the ultimate result would have been the same.

 

Norton had never wiped out an opponent of Duane's caliber that quickly and easily, so this was reasonably expected to be another situation where Bobick would have a chance to get warmed up as he needed to for performing well. Knoetze did not catch him cold though, and that loss may have been deadlier to his future prospects than any of his other professional losses.

He trained himself down to the lowest weight of his career for Tate, but John just charged out of the gate, unloaded four consecutive right hand leads, and that was that.

Duane was not yet 30 when Chaplin stopped him on cuts, but Bobick was starting to get to him with body shots. He initially planned to take a nice rest after Chaplin before considering whether or not to resume his career. Unlike many, he made a wise choice in deciding to skip it. He was probably about as successful as he could have been. Among the top contenders of 1977, he might have had the best chance at beating Jimmy Young (coming off of Young's upset of Foreman), but he wasn't really a world class professional heavyweight.

 

It was of course a gamble, on paper it was thought that Norton could not fight off the back foot, and was rather Nervous with punchers, the gamble was wether Norton would perceive any danger From Bobick and did he have the strenght to Bull Norton onto his back Foot and make him ineffective, well we found the answer, Norton wanted to capitalise on any hesitancey on the part of Bobick - Mission Accomplished.

Perhaps not quite so dramatic, but i suspect this Bobick Bubble was going to burst whenever he was thrust into the front line

Perhaps he could of taken a Slower route to exposure but there comes a time when questions have to be answered and Duane had prepped enough
- he flunked the course, not the first wont be the last.

He never seemed to want to resit such a tough exam again - perhaps that was wise, but good luck to him, he contributed some nice Ink to Boxing during his time.

 

The Norton fight was a bad management move for Bobick. Ironically, Bobick could have fought Ali instead of Norton in 1977. During the winter of 1976-77, the people at Madison Square Garden were talking about making Ali vs. Bobick. For whatever reason, Bobick's people gave him Norton instead.

Remember how Ali looked against Alfredo Evangelista in 1977? Bobick would have stood an outside chance of victory against that shopworn version of Ali. At the very least, Bobick would have gone the distance and looked good in losing.

Norton was all wrong for Bobick, who should have been kept away from big bombers because of his leaky defense and so-so chin.

 

Bobick was trained at that time by Eddie Futch, Norton's former trainer, who was confident he "knew something" about Norton that Bobick could exploit. In fact, he declared that Bobick would be the one to score an early KO. To me, this was one of the greatest trainer/manager-led disasters of all time.

 

I guess the odds should have been against Norton considering his age and the fact that his former trainer (Futch) and sparring partner (Frazier) were with Bobick who had a reputation as a puncher. Instead he prevailed with an easy one round knockout.

 

Irritates me when people cite him as having some china chin based off of KO Norton 1. No doubt he wasn't George Chuvalo, but the fight wasn't quite as simple as that.

He was punched in the throat. There's a post fight interview with Cosell and everything where he's talking, rasping like a terminal cancer patient because of that shot the entire interview. He sounds terrible.

That's the shot that started that entire full on assault from Norton.

Just find it funny that Genaro Hernandez had minutes to recover against Nelson, Bobick gets his throat crushed by Norton and then blasted out with the ensuing shots and he's got a **** chin. :nono

 

I think people are basing it on more than just the Norton KO but Bobick was a bit unfortunate to run into Stevenson, Knoetze, Tate, Norton, all of whom could punch, even if not all of them were huge punchers.

He may have looked better against Ali and Young.

 

I'd love to see Stevenson connect on Norton and see him fare much better.

 

Bobick had been knocked cold in the amateurs by Ron Lyle. The film is on youtube. That's in addition to the Stevenson kayo.

I'm not saying Bobick had a china chin, because obviously, it usually took huge punchers such as Lyle, Stevenson, Norton and Knoetze to stop him. Still, it's clear that Bobick didn't have the top notch durability necessary to fight a slugging match against the strongest, hardest hitting contenders of the '70s.

In other words, Bobick didn't have the toughness of Quarry, Bonavena, Lyle, Foreman, Frazier, and numerous others who proved their durability by recovering from huge wallops in the ring.

Given Bobick's style -- a straight-ahead slugger -- he would have needed a stronger chin to succeed.

 

I know what he lacked and what he would of needed to succeed.

I'm just elaborating on the woefully oversimplified "His chin was ****" stuff you get on boxing boards sometimes.

Being knocked out cold by someone who came closet to sparking George Foreman doesn't come off sounding too terrible to me anyway.

 

I recall hearing about the throat punch at the time, but when was it landed? Before or after the big overhand right that rocked Bobick? That shot didn't hit Bobick in the throat. I recall that fight vividly - it was on network television in prime time. Those were the days. I hadn't seen Bobick fight since the '72 Olympics, and when he came out at the opening bell I was shocked at how slow he was. It as immediately clear that he in over his head. Strange how Norton demolished one white hope within a minute, and then in turn was demolished himself by another white hope within one minute.

 

Stevenson beat Bobick's ass. Really embarassed him. I believe Bobick had beaten Teo before, but at the games Stevenson really dominated him.

 

I agree with your point about the throat punch. I remember seeing Bobick staggered by Norton first, then getting caught on the ropes by a barrage of Norton bombs. I think the throat punch came when Bobick was about fall anyway.

As for Cooney kayoing Norton in 1981, that fight was scheduled for May 11th, which is the same date of the 1977 Bobick fight. I believe Madison Square Garden chose the same date deliberately, for hype/marketing purposes. Norton stopped Bobick in 58 seconds, and Cooney stopped Norton in 54 seconds.