Frank Lotierzo has been considered by some boxing insiders to be one of the sport’s best fight analysts. His work has appeared in Fight Game, Boxing-Illustrated, and Uppercut magazine. Prior to his career as a writer, Mr. Lotierzo hosted Toe-To-Toe on ESPN Radio and trained at Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia under the tutelage of the legendary George Benton. Between 1977 and 1982, he had over 50 fights as an amateur and pro in the middleweight division. Frank is also a member of the International Boxing Research Organization and a former member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. http://www.thesweetscience.com/feat...oday-judges-got-right-ali-norton-rubber-match
Anyone who thinks Ali won the third fight is either a huge fan of Ali or a very bad judge of boxing. I think the former is likely in this case. Norton won it 9-6, clearly out throwing and landing Ali, and wasn't hurt at any time in the fight.
Ali's admission that he lost. http://thegrio.com/2013/09/19/ken-norton-will-be-remembered-as-one-of-the-best-heavyweights-ever/
One sports writer for one of the New York papers said after the fight:"If Ali won that fight last night...then the Japanese won WWII"...
The UPI poll shows the US press split 50:50 on the decision (the British press overwhelmingly scoring it for Ali). http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...BInAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UwMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1189,2637077 What's also significant is that of those listed who scored it for Norton only D!ck Young and Red Smith (both vociferous critics of Ali for years) did so by a clear margin. The others did so by no more than one or two rounds, which would make the fight far too close to be considered a robbery. Three weeks later a panel of experts reviewed the tape and called it a draw. http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...AIBAJ&sjid=NMoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5361,2517187&hl=en And then there's Frank Lotierzo's clear and well-argued article, above. There's just too great a weight of opinion in support of the verdict. For a decision to be considered a robbery it's not enough that you've seen it on video and come up with a different scorecard of your own. You have to show that a strong majority of ringsiders saw it as a clear win for the other man, and that just wasn't the case here.
imho Ali could be the greatest HW of all time; in retrospect he wasn't the same in the seventies and played us for fools with some of his defenses and, when he had to fight someone in the top tier, he made sure he had it timed as perfect as he could. I think he lost the Norton III fight; just look at his head bowed after the final round. He knew.
The writer is a pathetic fanboy. Norton won it clearly but got gypped of his legacy. Ali won the popularity contest, and forty years later his worshippers continue to distort reality in his favor. Disgusting.
According to George Foreman Ali told Norton years later that he thought Norton won. Apparently Norton became very emotional . I think Norton's belief that he got jobbed broke him a bit.
I think it was plain and simply a fight that could of gone either way, whoever won would be lucky whoever lost would be unlucky. I definitely think Ali lost to Jimmy Young though, I thought that one bordered on robbery.
Ken Norton was a very good man but he did liked to boast how he beat Ali but does he realise he wasn't half the fighter he once was. He still would have given any version of Ali problems mind.....
