Cutting off the ring

Eddie Futch was critical of Norton in the 2nd fight saying that Norton had taken for granted the tactics that had worked in the first fight. He was pretty successful otherwise in driving Ali to the ropes.

 

Chavez was the best. Napoles deserves a mention

 

Flash Gordon certainly though so after Qawi-Saad Muhammad II. Astute shout-out. Both also had that knack of never taking a backwards step while subtly slipping shots on the way forward and in which is necessary with effective ring cutting tactics when not blessed with the height and reach advantages of a Hearns or Foreman. (I don't rate Tommy as a ring cutter by the way, just using his height and reach advantages as a lower weight instance of somebody who could have cut off the ring effectively while remaining out of his opponent's punching range. SRL did move on him to begin their WW unification match, but unlike the first five rounds of Ali-Norton II, Ray ceded all those rounds to Tommy in doing so, banking everything on the latter round stoppage win from behind which mutual opponent Randy Shields accurately predicted.)