Ali vs. Norton 4

Norton all day long. Ali did not belong in the ring at that point. Norton would have been highly motivated, had more left in the tank, and would not have made the same mistakes.

Norton stops that version of Ali.

 

I agree with you, but Norton wasn't too far from the bone yard either....wel, on second thought, he had that great fight vs Holmes to offer yet. Norton would have stopped Ali for sure.

 

We could have done without Leon Spinks as champion....Ali really should have fought Norton.

 

Lol.. He could not with a can like spinks , norton would eat him alive Ali would pay foreman to return to help him . it will be funny to see the ali fanatics picking him

 

Ali was my favourite boxer but I have to admit that a fourth fight with Norton in '78 would have been a step too far for the great man. He was still up to reversing a decision against Spinks but was too over the hill for Norton and Holmes at this point.

 

Norton would have pounded out a decision win.

 

in 78 ali was not only semi shot, he was diseased too.

its not fair to put a diseased man in the hypothetical ring with anyone - including not only Norton but also the middling spinks.

what we doing next, putting wheelchaired ezzard Charles in with joe bugner?

RIP Ez

 

Alzheimers Ray Robinson vs Bernard Hopkins

 

Norton comes in with big chip on his shoulder and stops Ali. I wonder if this would change the Ali legacy. Ali Norton would be 2-2 with many ppl believing it should Be 3-1 Norton. Ali also never wins the title back a third time. Interesting stuff.

 

Ken would decision Muhammad, then lose the belt 7-8 months later to either Larry Holmes, or Earnie Shavers.

 

Norton doesn't stop Ali when Shavers and the hyper aggressive Leon Spinks couldn't do it (and Leon could hit a bit). Holmes doubled him over with that right in the ninth round, then went all out in his bid to finish off a Thyrolar hampered Ali and failed before the round expired. Over a year later, Berbick didn't come close to taking Ali out.

This was a post Shavers Ali with permanently compromised coordination and timing, but Norton also blew the WBC belt by ceding eight of the first ten rounds against a physically compromised Holmes with a bad left bicep (public knowledge going in).

Ken might still actually find a way to blow it. Frazier and Leon were the only two challengers who really went testicles to the wall during Ali's second reign, and Ali wouldn't take him lightly the way he felt he could Leon and Evangelista. Beyond that, he was comfortable and experienced with the championship distance, while Norton was really a mid rounds guy who never went 15 rounds until Ali III. He's gotten a lot more mileage out of a neglected impacted wisdom tooth causing a fractured jaw, an impressive physique, and the 1977 knockouts of Bobick and Zanon than I think he deserves (largely thanks to Ali's own hype about Kenny following their first match).

When it comes to smoke and mirrors, I don't see Ken lasting long with Lyle, going the distance with the Frazier of Manila, and we know what happened when he faced Foreman and Shavers. Larry Middleton was his audition for Ali III, and as Jerry Quarry mused towards the end of the broadcast, "He's gonna have ta fight a heckuva lot better than this to beat Ali!" (JQ was thinking of how Ali had looked against Dunn at 220 pounds of course.)

On the Ali-Young undercard, Norton turned a completely shot Stander into a bloody mess, then was signed to face Bonavena in June, but Ringo got himself shot and killed at the Mustang Ranch three weeks after Norton-Stander. Oscar was still no picnic for anybody at the time of his death, and looking at Norton-Middleton, I'm not at all certain how Norton-Bonavena in June 1976 would have turned out.

Mike Weaver pulled off some knockout wins Norton would have been knocked out in, specifically Mercado and Coetzee.

Ali defended against undeserving challengers, but he also defended against guys Ken wouldn't have dared step in the ring with until he had absolutely no alternative. Even John Tate was able to stop Mercado and Knoetze before succeeding to Ali's vacated title over Coetzee (both in South Africa, BTW).

For a period of almost exactly five years between Foreman and Shavers, Norton managed to be steered away from every truly deadly puncher in the HW division while Ron Lyle was the maddest bass of the decade, taking on and going after everybody who would square off with him. (He'd already had his death certificate signed, but not being afraid of getting embarrassed by spoilers and the unpredictable puts him on an entirely different level. Leroy Caldwell in Lyle's fifth bout? Bob Stallings? Peralta 2X? Jimmy Young 2X? Jerry Quarry? Stan Ward? These were guys who Shavers and Foreman STILL have nightmares about, along with their bad dreams about Lyle.)

Yes, Norton should win Ali IV, just as he should have done enough to win Ali III after Inoki screwed up those legs in Tokyo, but the fact is that Ken never won a scheduled title fight, and might find a way to blow Ali IV as well. He never won a UD away from home turf, and won no UDs after 1972. (I do think he was robbed of a UD win by home cooking against LeDoux in Bloomington, even with those two KDs scored by Scott in the final round.)

 

Absolutely not true .. Norton was on fire post Ali 3 .. he destroyed an undefeated Duane Bobick .. He blew through a tricky Lorenzo Zanon while begging for an Ali rematch which Ali absolutely wanted no part of , so much so that Ali was stripped on the title .. now for a boxing organization to strip Muhammad Ali was huge .. it was so bad that they did and for once they were right .. Norton then fought the other top guy in Young and won ( to me cleanly ) .. he then fought another top guy in Holmes and fought ash exceptional fight .. that fight could have went either way .. he then was robbed of the same immediate rematch Ali received against Spinks by boxing bodies that demanded he fight Shavers in an elimination .. Shavers would have been a terrible match up for Norton at any time , Norton got crushed and the rest is history but from 76 to 79 Norton was still on top of his game when Ali was a shell and worse every time out ..