Better Resume: Tyson Fury or Ken Norton?

People also have a point when they mention the losses Norton had. There's an argument for Fury here too.

 

How so lad?

 

Fury became lineal champ, by beating one of the longest reigning guys in history.
Yes, there was the time out and one thing or another, but he came back to beat one of the hardest hitting title holders in history.

I do have respect for Kenny, beating Ali is a great achievement and he did have some good names on his resume, but I have to put Fury in there.

 

A poll would have been invaluable on this one too.

 

In my opinion, Norton's win over Ali arguably outweighs Fury's entire resume, and on top of that, he has solid wins over Quarry and Young. Fury has an argument, though, since Norton's losses drag his resume down quite a bit and Ali wasn't perhaps in the best shape of his career, but I still give the nod to Norton

 

OK this is starting to get ridiculous.

 

Current and more recent fighters are certainly up against it aren't they.

 

For all the talk of posters putting down fighters of the past, the current fighter are treated just as bad, if not worse.

 

Yeah obviously the nature of classic will lean toward the past. Fury's no mug that's for sure and he's got a bit done in the ring.

 

Fury but only because of Nortons loses

Despite what people say, Norton is not a great

 

I know it sounds controversial, but think about it, who has Fury won that is comparable to someone who is a placeholder in almost every top 10 p4p all-time list, and who is at the very least a top 5 H2H heavyweight.

Ali was excellent in his 70s career; some would argue that he was better in the early 70s than in the late 60s, so he wasn't nearly as faded as Wlad.

Ali's broken jaw was unfortunate, and he underestimated Norton. Still, Norton was very competitive in the rematch when Ali was in fine shape, proving that it wasn't a fluke and would always be competitive regardless of what shape Ali was in.

 

I don't think it's clear-cut.

The criticisms of Norton's resume, save for the losses, could be leveled at Fury's, i.e. Chisora x2, Cunningham and Whyte, do not necessarily outshine Norton's wins, outside of Ali.

Norton did suffer some bad losses, outside of his prime, but to what extent do losses to Ali, Foreman and Holmes dent his ledger? And, in relation to his losses to Ali, a debate still rages today, as to just how fair those decisions were.

What Fury has achieved is very noteworthy, but his key victories have been Wlad K and Wilderx2 (which most would agree should be x3). There are arguments, which could be made, questioning the ledger-measuring-quality of these wins. Norton, on the other hand, has a win against Ali, which is taken to be a very high quality win.

I'm not suggesting Norton is ahead (and even if I was, it would be by a negligible distance and easily countered). I just don't think his and Fury's resume are easily compared.

There really is very little between them, in my opinion.

 

Also, heavyweights are notorious for their lack of p4p greatness; only Ali and Louis are rated highly, and Norton has a win over one of them who wasn't completely shot. How many natural heavyweights do you think can crack the top 50 or even top the 100 p4p lists? Not many I can tell you. Ali is also widely considered the greatest heavyweight, and therefore he is the best possible win to have on your resume at HW.

Fury is better as a fighter, though, and in the right circumstances, could easily have acquired greater resume than Norton. His wins over Wilder are pretty good; who himself is underrated. But strictly resume speaking, Fury's isn't as good as Norton's IMO.

 

Fury.

 

This "old Wlad" thing has to stop.... he wasn't some over the hill has been.

He was undefeated for a decade and everyone wrote Fury off as having zero chance going into the fight which was also in Wlad's back yard.

He was only 1 year removed from very arguably his finest career performance against Pulev and even still 18 months after Fury he lit up Wembley stadium in a terrific fight with AJ.