Devolution into Madness: Norton vs Holmes

Well he won, and he did have an injury.

 

Link to article please. Not just your word.

 

It legit was a SI article. You can prob find it in SI vault web site. I can vouch for it

 

https://www.si.com/vault/1978/06/19...-round-to-wrest-the-wbc-title-from-ken-norton

 

https://www.si.com/vault/issue/70785/25/2

I found it.

Nice article.

Ironically, I think I actually had this SI issue when it came out. I had a subscription in the late 70's. How I paid for it is a mystery as I was 8-9 years old at the time.

Yes, Swag is quoting from this article.

Still, I hope Pat Putman actually talked to the doctor and physical therapist and didn't jut take Holmes and Giachetti's word for it.

It was a great fight and great performance by both Holmes and Norton.

I do feel like Judge Tabat got it right - giving Norton the 15th round and the fight. It seemed Norton won most of the 15th round and Holmes won the last minute. Too often, judges award a round to a guy who dominated the end of it.

Btw: Holmes had excuses against Weaver and Witherspoon, too. I guess we can examine those at another time. LOL.

 

Lol mad poor ancient? Another day more that you could not have an erection?
Sad geriatric nerd

 

https://www.si.com/vault/1983/05/30/619385/holmes-really-had-a-spoonful

Pat Putnam SI article re. Holmes/Witherspoon

"..Holmes came in weighing 213 pounds, just as he did when he beat Norton for the title on June 9, 1978. Later, Holmes would admit that at 213 he was too light for Witherspoon, who proved much stronger than the champion expected. And it certainly didn't help that after Thursday's weigh-in, Holmes ate "a lot of corn and rice and steak." Friday morning he awoke with a bad case of diarrhea. It left him not only light but slightly weakened."

https://www.si.com/vault/1979/07/02...-duran-also-shone-but-leon-spinks-was-spanked

Pat Putnam SI article re. Holmes/Weaver

"...It was while trudging back to his corner at the end of the ninth round that Holmes decided enough was enough. "I thought about my title," he said. "And I thought about this guy trying to take it from me. I knew I had made a lot of mistakes: that I had taken him too lightly, that I should have trained a lot harder. I decided to suck it up. If I was going to be a champion, then, damn it, I was gonna fight like a champion. He was gonna have to kill me to take my title."

https://www.si.com/vault/1981/11/16...renaldo-snipes-nearly-knocked-both-for-a-loop

Pat Putnam SI article re. Holmes/Snipes

"...Earnie Shavers, whom Holmes likes, floored the champion in their second fight, and Holmes responded by knocking Shavers out. Mike Weaver, now the WBA champ, had Holmes down (it was ruled a slip), and although Holmes was weakened by an infection, he got up and hammered Weaver until the fight was stopped. Now Snipes, a fighter of such small consequence that Las Vegas refused to put this bout on the boards, dropped Holmes on his broad back."

No excuse was given for Larry's tougher than expected fight with Snipes, but as seen above, Putman did throw in an excuse for the Weaver fight - although interestingly, never having had mentioned the "infection" in his report of Holmes/Weaver at that time. As seen above,Holmes said he took Weaver lightly but nowhere in the article is it mentioned Holmes had an "infection."

Interestingly Pat Putman wrote all five SI articles reporting on Holmes's toughest title fights in his prime - there was also one on Holmes/Shavers II. Larry offered no exuses in that article so I didn't link it. I guess it was pretty obvious what happened there - he dropped his hands and Shavers teed off. He showed tremendous heart to recover from a lightning bolt of a right hand in that fight.

 

I was just reading one of my mags that covered the Triple Crown Affair last week. Larry was trying to explain his poor showing against Witherspoon. He started off saying he undertrained and then after exploring that a bit he said maybe i overtrained LOL. Larry always felt the need to explain away even slightly sub par performances for some reason. He won all these fights.

 

Holmes always felt he had something to prove I believe that's why. Had a bit of the chip on his shoulder. Holmes at his best to me was easily one of the top 3 or 4 HWC ever.

 

I think you can debate him anywhere from 3-8 pretty solidly.

 

Very insightful post.

 

Agree with you. Ali took a frightening beating to the body in Zaire.

 

,
Really? I don't recall that. Let's hear some of those excuses then. I recall a Holmes who fought back hard after taking some blows, for example his fights against Renaldo Snipes, Carl Williams, and "The Acorn", I forget his name. Not to mention the second fight against Spinks. Holmes should have won that fight. And Holmes was right about something else. Marciano "couldn't carry Holmes jockstrap"

Holmes was a class act, and he didn't play the race card, he just went about his business. He never got the respect he deserved, and that hurt him. I say he suffered a lot of racially tinted hatred, especially in the build-up to the fight against that much hyped great white hope Gerry Cooney. But Holmes just stuck to.business and destroyed Cooney A vivid memory from the build-up to the Cooney fight was the following statement from Holmes, or something very much like that...

"It's that Black/White thing again. I hate that s h i t."

 

Larry Holmes vs Ken Norton

1 Holmes
2 Holmes
3 Holmes
4 Holmes
5 Holmes
6 Holmes
7 Norton
8 Norton
9 Holmes
10 Norton
11 Norton
12 Norton
13 Holmes
14 Norton
15 Norton

143-142 Holmes

This is how i scored the fight last time i watched it.

 

The fight that got me into boxing... as well as Ken Norton.