So what's the consenus on Norton/Ali III...

and the third. norton didnt make enough to convince the judges that he is the world heavy weight champ .. alot of screaming in face of ali didnt work !! he should try something diffrent than screaming to win

 

9-6 for Norton. Easy to score. Ali showed that he´s a big man, he said he felt he lost, but some of his groupies can´t accept this...

 

A sports writer for the New York Times said after the fight.......
"If Ali won that fight....then the Japanese won World War II...!"

 

If Norton had won the championship that night from Ali in 1976, who do you think he would have fought next? Holmes was still an unknown at the time, so I don't think it would have been Larry. Maybe Earnie Shavers or George Foreman?

 

Interesting question. Foreman was the #1 for quite some time between '76 and '77. Don't know if Norton was eager to rematch him, though. Maybe Young. Perhaps Holmes would've had a title eliminator with Young while Foreman got a shot. That would've been very interesting.

 

A long time since I watched that fight. I didn't score it, but I thought it was a close fight, at the time. The champion often retains the title if it's close.

Norton got terrible advice from his corner before the 15th round. They told him it was in the bag and to take no chances in the last round. Ali knew he had to fight like hell in the 15th to have any chance.

Larry Holmes also knew he had to go for broke in his last round against Norton.

Norton has since said he wishes he could fight that last round of Ali III again, that he had enough left in the tank to go to war.

In my considered opinion, Ali should have retired by this point. Zaire, or Manilla (if we are going to be bloodthirsty) should have been his last battle. That was the last time we saw Ali the great warrior. The Ali of his third fight with Norton was physically in good shape (unlike vs Young) but a shell of the fighter he once was. He hardly threw any combinations at all.

 

I think if Norton would have won he'd have made an easy payday against the likes of Bobick, then rematched Ali. He wouldn't have wanted Foreman after Caracas and Young was always a too big a risk for too little a reward.