True. They also never had any of their close fights go against them (well, Briggs in Foreman's second career) and neither did Louis. I've only watched Ali-Norton I once and had it very close, but thought that I was perhaps biased and that it was a clear win for Kenny in reality, but interesting that Norton himself has said that it could have gone either way. In that case, Ali did have one close fight go against him.
Ken definitely deservedthe verdict in the first fight by around 7 - 4 - 1. And,like your good self,I'm a massive Ali fan. Interesting that Norton thought that,though.
Ali never decisively beat Norton He squeaked by him in the second fight at best, lost the first and the third fight ... I don't see how you can give Ali the win in the third fight ... Unless you do some strange scoring maybe you can come up with a draw for Ali ...
You're not the only one who had Ali-Norton I close. Futch and Frazier (not only were they in Norton's camp but both hated Ali immensely) had the fight a draw.
The young near prime Ali of the 60s would probably even have trouble with Norton ... His style was perfect against boxers
And Futch was Norton's trainer for the fight, and Frazier and Norton were stable mates. Surprised to hear that they had it so close. Interesting.
tbh I don't think he would've had much trouble with him. In their 2nd fight, when Ali fought like the Ali of old, and punched from unconventional angles, Norton could do nothing. A fight with a 60s Ali would be more of the same, the only difference being Ali wouldn't have tired.
Yeah I'm trying to find a source. My old one (google newspaper archives) seems to have deleted a lot of their pages unfortunately.
@Bokaj While I was looking for my source where Futch and Ali scored the draw, I found something very interesting "Would Norton beat the Ali of say three years ago?" "definitely not Futch said" Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72689280/albuquerque-journal/
Norton beat Ali close on my card in 3rd fight 8-7 Also I had Jimmy Young beating Ali and Ali could of easily been Dq’d with his fight against Henry Cooper for his corner illegally using Smelling Salts to revive their fighter between rounds. Salts were banned in Britain.
If Eddie Futch had still been in Ken's corner,he'd have without a doubt urged him to come out hurling everything but the kitchen sink at Muhammad in the final round and he'd probably have taken it,thus winning the fight. This is the difference between the second and third fights between the pair - Ken tried to win the last round in the second one but Muhammad was faster than him. The position was reversed in the later bout because of Muhammad's deterioration in speed and skillset. Ali still had a great thinking fighter's brain,though.Wasted opportunity by Norton and his corner.
I concur. As I've already said,I think Ken edged it but it was n't the robbery some make it out to be.
