Did Ken Norton ever say who hit him the hardest?

True JT, and an ATG chin or at least something a bit better than the chin Ken did have would’ve also set him up for a considerably higher ATG ranking.

Quite simply, if he could withstand the power of the opponent at hand, in most cases, Norton gave the opponent in question absolute hell.

 

The big 3. All had poor Kenny on ***** st..

 

KO Magazine interview. He definitely said Shavers, I remember it well.

 

Who did Shavers ever ko with his left hand? Not saying he couldn’t hit hard with his left but whenever he hurt someone he always seem to go right hand crazy in tryin to get the ko

 

Shavers almost killed Lyle with left hook...Lyle even said so.
Lyle was out and almost killed by that left hook.

 

The first punch he stunned Norton with was a left hook, and in both his bouts with Young, he decked Jimmy with a left hook, the only two knockdowns Young ever sustained in his career. It was with respect to Earnie's left hook that Ron Lyle said, "He hit me and the floor came up!"

 

I cannot find the clip at the moment, but Ken Norton did say on camera that Earnie Shavers was the hardest puncher he faced.

What's noteworthy is who did NOT say Shavers hit him the hardest, and it was Jerry Quarry, who exclaimed to Don Dunphy in the ring following that blowout, "He never hit me!" Jerry was shocked to discover otherwise when he viewed the videotape the following day. Earnie for his part repeated what Dunphy reported live with "Shavers scoring heavily!" Earnie admitted on camera that he really clobbered JQ.

For his part, Jerry told Don Dunphy immediately after Mac Foster that, "He can hit like heck, man! WHEW!" That was Mac's greatest career performance, and JQ uniquely dropped and stopped him, something Ali tried and failed to do in Budokan.


Shavers also had a long and powerful sharp left jab he used to great effect in his first bout with Henry Clark in Paris. (This was Larry Merchant's debut as a broadcast commentator. It would late him a few years to become comfortable in this new milieu.) Coming in with a bruised right hand against a rugged opponent who had just shockingly blown out Jeff Merritt with three knockdowns in 30 seconds (we now know Candy Slim was badly coked up), Earnie knew he'd have to win a decision with a body that didn't support the sort of stick and move tactics he'd need to deploy, yet he did. By around round seven, he was obviously tiring, but then, his jab opened up Clark's right eye, the only cut Henry ever sustained in his career, saving Shavers. For their rematch in Yankee Stadium in the Ali-Norton III semifinal, he was healthy, and Clark discovered the difference in less than two rounds.


George Chuvalo made it clear Joe Frazier's right was nothing to sneeze at, but aside from ripping Jerry Quarry's face open with it in their rematch, we don't see him inflicting that much apparent damage with it. (In close, he did sent Ali's face up to the lights with a short hard right late in their middle bout.)

 

Sounds bang on to me, cheers.

 

His earth shattering right hand certainly overshadowed his left hand but a common theme from opponents is that he hit HARD with every punch he threw, even jabs.

The best example of his left hand on film is indeed his detaching Lyle from his senses. If there was even 15 seconds left in that round Lyle could not have survived, he was rendered defenseless.