Anyone Give Norton A Chance Against Vitali??

I know as much about Lennox Lewis as anyone else who watched every single one of his fights chronologically ...as I did at the time. Where do you get off using a statement like that?

Lewis was heavy for that Klitschko fight, but as all long term champions had, he was inclined to be by then. had Lewis came through that fight winning it easily there would have been no talk of him being out of shape or past his best. That all came afterwards. Nobody minded Lewis being 251 pounds for the Oliver McCall rematch in 1997!

He was still being celebrated for the fine reversal of the Rahman result followed by the legacy win over Tyson..who was considered to be past his best. was anyone talking about Lewis being past his best going into the Tyson fight just one bout earlier?

It is not unreasonable to suggest the dip in form was responsible due to the awkwardness of his opponent...or for that matter that with the same effort against Klitschko, Lewis still would have beaten Tyson and Rahman that night.

after the event we can all be wise afterwards. Lewis had been on top a long time and the next generation was coming through.

feel free to disagree by all means, but I won’t tolerate any more accusations about not knowing my history.

 

I will feel free to disagree with you - and I do - but spare me your fake indignation, please!

In the space of a single post, you went from an emphatic:

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To some half-arsed attempt at walking this back:

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Perhaps you should be more careful about the assertions you make in the first place.

As for my comment, re you not knowing your history when it comes to Lennox Lewis, I stand by it.

Watching every single one of Lewis' fights chronologically doesn't mean you have an insight into what was happening behind the scenes or are even aware of occurrences, which were made public at the time. Your conflicting comments regarding Lewis' contemplation of retirement have clearly shown this to be the case.

Lewis has in interviews, since retirement, made clear that Tyson was all he'd been waiting for; that he had a hunger to fight Tyson - something he didn't have for the Klitschko bout.

You might also find it interesting to note that part of the case made in the courts, to force Rahman (who threatened to derail a Lewis/Tyson fight) to rematch Lewis immediately, involved the stage Lewis was at in his career - Steward testifying that Lewis might already be in decline.

But I'm sure you knew that already, having watched every single one of Lewis' fights and all.

 

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Dino you are one of a kind.

You might want to check the spelling on Brian Nielsen's name, I mean if you " think " his resume was that good.

Like the others said.

 

Norton vs punchers:

Shavers KO loss in 1
Foreman KO loss in 2
Cooney KO loss in 1

A knock loss to a smaller Garcia, and it is not hard to predict how Vitali would do here.

 

Good points, but to be totally fair the losses to Shavers and Cooney happened when Norton was pretty much shot. Anything after the Holmes war...it took too much out of Ken.

Granted, he did have the ko loss to Foreman...but who COULDN'T Foreman ko at the time who wasn't Ali? My guess is few people. I mean, George knocked the crap out of an UNDEFEATED Joe Frazier, a far better fighter than anyone listed here besides Big George.

The ko to Garcia is of course pretty damning, have to give you that one.

 

Right another way to look at it, who is the best puncher Norton beat? No one close to Klitschko is the answer.

The Holmes fight and the Shavers fight were less than 9 months apart.

 

That is an interesting way to look at it.

To me Norton was finished after Holmes, that fight blew him out...plus, I think he was discouraged really bad. He thought he won both of his last real championship fights, to Ali and Larry, and when it comes to the former I agree 100% with him. It must have really demoralized him losing that decision to Larry by ONE POINT. Ugh.

 

It isn't all that damning, given the circumstances. Norton was 16-0 and got caught cold in the first round. He never really recovered from that setback and yet still made it to round-8 (when it was claimed by the Norton camp that he was hit after the bell).

Norton would later avenge that loss with a beatdown of Garcia, on his way to a KO 5 victory - taking some flush shots from Garcia, in the process.

 

Getting caught cold was something that happened to Norton vs. the punchers he fought.

Vitali fought his share of guys who got caught early, most notably Hide, Norris, and K Johnson, who lasted a combined 5 rounds. You can add in Solis, who was hurt in round one by a punch then fell and hurt himself if you choose.

 

Ken gets a bye by some because he operated at a better level ....but let’s not forget he couldn’t decisively beat any elite level men in the period between the shellackings he got from Foreman and Shavers.

It was a lower level, but among the elite level men of his time, Vitali either beat or could at least be favoured over all of them at one time. Larry Donald, Sanders, Hide, Peter. All emphatic wins. And they were as good as or about the level of the guys Ken beat emphatically like Zannon, Stander, Clark and Quarry.

 

Foreman and Shavers were aggressive pressure fighters , in Foremans case , he was one of the best front foot aggressors ever at HW.
Both of them rank on the ATG list in terms of punching power.

Vitali was not a front foot pressure fighter. He thought to take the fight to Sanders early and swiftly leapt across the ring when he felt a counter strike across his face. He never dared to walk Sanders down for the remainder of the fight.

Thats not to criticize him for changing tactics back to his preferred range and style , its to make the point that Vitali's style was the polar opposite to Foreman and Shavers.

He also hit nowhere near as hard as them. In fact Vitali didn't not hit hard when boxing on the backfoot. And boxing on the backfoot is where he would be against Norton , so the idea that Norton would be troubled by Vitali's slaps is a falsity.

Vitali couldn't even produce a drop against a completely gassed out Sanders who was plodding forward face first.

Lewis felt his power and knew he could take risks by plodding forward face first.

Furthermore , Norton beat Ali , once if not twice. You failed to mention this as if listing names like Peter and a shot Sanders were great wins

Vitali's two best wins are Arroela and Sam peter. For a huge SHW , his best wins were bested by a light heavy and a natural cruiser.

 

Yet another Dino paen to Vitali. Will this fanboy ever stop singing the praises of the Klitschkos?

 

I would also pick Hide to beat Norton, but not in 1

 

I'm ready to give up on Dino, he thinks Brian Nielsen has a comparable resume to Vitali Klitschko.

1 ) How can you say that?

2 ) Why waste time replying back to it. 99% other posters see as bad judgement mixed in with hate.

I suppose if someone wants a crack at the resident ESB Piñata, they can always swing away until they get bored.