Arrogant comment. Perhaps scoring boxing isn't YOUR thing. Are you saying Mercante and the 2 ringside judges were bought off? Or incompetent? Well?
I like and admire Norton. He only has himself to blame, however, for losing the battle of Yankee Stadium. He claimed he was so well-conditioned that fall '76 night he could have gone 20 rounds. More fool him then for failing to jump on Ali in R15 - until it was too late.
Norton himself admits he lost round 15 (though he insists he didn't need it anyways). God only knows what was going on in his mind, as he did virtually nothing for 2 1/2 minutes of the round. He threw the fight away. He has nobody to blame but himself.
What happened against Norton is a prime example of styles make fights . Holmes and and Ali went 4-0 against Foreman , Shavers, and Cooney. Norton went 0-3. So yes Norton gave Ali and Holmes hell, in losing efforts. He was blown out against opponents they defeated with different styles. Match ups..... Ali and Holmes were much better at defeating different abilities than Norton. A difference between a good fighter (Norton) against great fighters ( Ali and Holmes)
I like your post, @Flash24 while still believing Norton was a great fighter. Even though he lost badly, mostly past his peak, he also both won and fought inspiringly against top heavyweights. Imo he was actually more accomplished than the current heavyweight champs.
To be fair, Norton was past his prime against both Shavers and Cooney and their's absolutely no shame in losing to a prime Foreman.
I'll weigh in: Ali lost, but he didn't get beaten bad or swept. It was enough of a loss to make retirement look like a good idea. That said, I loved the Shavers fight, especially when Ali woke the hell up and started kicking ass in the last round. I've had Norton ahead by either one or two points (at the most) whenever I've watched the fight. So it was fairly close...but then, I never had Ali winning.
I don’t ever remember Ali trying to knock Norton out. If he can take out and splatter Oscar he can take out a fragiler guy like Norton. He had the chin why didn’t he just put it on the line? But whatever, just an amusing thought.
Was he any more over the hill than Ali was when he fought Shavers? Or it was simply how Shavers ( And Cooney) matched up with Norton? Norton was a fine fighter going forward behindvhis jab. But when powerful fighters forced him to go backwards or side to side he wasn't.
True, Ken got knocked out by perhaps the greatest puncher in heavyweight history, but to be fair as possible he had engaged in probably the fight of his life less than a year before Shavers (the Holmes fight of course), lost a tough fought and rawther questionable decision to Ali for all the cards less than 3 years before. Plus, I think it says something that he didn't do much good after the Shavers fight. I do see what you mean about Ali/Shavers, but you know as well as anybody that it's hard to compare ANY fighter's chin to Ali's. Look at the beating he took from Holmes, the flush shots from Foreman, Cooper, Bonavena, Lyle, and Frazier...most heavyweights suffer in comparison to Ali in that respect imo.
Agree. Even Ali's detractors must allow that the man's chin and recuperative powers were supernatural.
I understand the perspective that Norton probably should’ve just gone out to win the final round of the rubber match vs Ali. However, that opinion still operates under the artificial caveat that, to beat Ali, you had to win more than your fair share of necessary rounds to win the fight - to account for and eclipse the Ali effect (biased judging) - which clearly wasn’t/isn’t fair. I mean, how many rounds did Norton have to win before it could NOT be said that he somehow “blew it” by not going out to seize the final round - a round that it seems was inappropriately framed as the “decider”? Rounds are scored and posted round by round. So, judges can’t go back and diddle their cards BUT they can preemptively and unjustly score earlier rounds for the Champ or fall on the side of the Champ in close rounds to establish a platform for the Champ to still be able to “eke” out a decision even in a fight that was clearly not close. IMO, the recent Bivol vs Canelo fight reflected this type of MO in scoring - ridiculously biased scoring, participation of earlier rounds in order to push the question of victory for Bivol all the way back to the 12th and final round. IF Bivol didn’t actually go out and win that final round ALSO, - thus resulting in an inexplicable draw, he might’ve been pinned as being responsible for his own “failure”, ala Norton. Believing he was ahead, didn’t Norton say he elected to box carefully in the final round? - even though it appeared that he was never really hurt at all during the fight - rather, it was Ali who appeared well shook on several occasions. Playing it safe in order to protect your lead and avoid the possibility of a KO I would understand - but the chances of Ali KO’ing Norton in round 15 were slim and none. Gotta admit, even though I think he clearly didn’t need the 15th, Norton’s rationale as to why he didn’t just go out and do his usual thing for it’s own sake doesn’t make sense to me - unless Norton actually “felt” some of Ali’s punches more than it seemed - but I don’t think so.