Do Ali's Loss and Trouble With Norton Get Enough Consideration When Judging Ali?

Two of those fights were very close and Ali was past his best when he came out of retirement. Still great though, not to rob Norton of that. Norton was just a very, very difficult style match-up and Dundee said they could have fought a hundred times and it'd always be difficult for Ali. You can't discount the effect of the broken jaw either in the first.

 

I have no problems seeing a 29-year old Norton beating the Holmes who fought Witherspoon. He was after all five years older than that when he nearly beat a better version of Holmes. Because of that my money would actually be on Norton in this match-up.

Also, there have been said on this site that Norton got the better of Frazier in sparring before the Foreman fight. So perhaps Norton would have had a good shout against this version of Frazier.

Tunney is another fighter I'd give Norton good odds against. And he's in quite many's top 15.

I haven't seen the Garcia fight. But otherwise Norton was only KO'd by aggressive fighters with a huge punch. Neither Patterson or Walcott were punchers of that pedigree, and Walcott wasn't as agressive. He was rather the kind of fighter Norton thrived against.

 

mar 66 chuvalo, may 66 cooper, aug 66 london, sept 66 mildenburger, nov 66 williams, feb 67 terrell, mar 67 folley - ali defended his title 7 times in 12 months. i think he was allowed a few off-nites. don't you? but imagine how many more defences he could've made if not for exile

 

I think that quite a few people dont seem to realise that kenny norton was a hell of a good fighter. The comparisons with louis-walcott and ali-norton3 dont really compare, apart from the actual result, as Louis was comprehensively outboxed AND dropped twice before trying to climb out of the ring at the end before the decision was announced only to be called back in. The Ali-norton3 was close that could have went either way although if you look at Ali at the final bell at the end of the 2nd fight, hes very agitated and kinda throws a punch at bundini brown. Gave me the impression he thought he lost

 

When Muhammad threw the punch at Brown,I get the impression that he knew it was very close,not ncessarily that he lost. I like the way that he made a grab for Howard Cossell's toupee,just beforehand.