Fighters That Went Downhill, After Suffering A First Defeat?

They felt that Larry's legs were going and that he was rapidly aging after Weaver I. They projected an SD win for Leon the way he beat Ali, and this time, Leon had earned this shot after ending the best career streak of the big and deadly punching Mercado in nine. (I did expect Larry to win, but not the way he crushed a highly alert and in the game Leon, who stole round two by recognizing a wrongly timed bell which Holmes somehow failed to realize was off. This fired Larry up to win in a completely unexpected way. That was Leon at his peak.)

 

Leon's two-fight winning streak must have really impressed them. Who wrote the preview, Mr T?

 

But by the time, Le Doux fought Ken Norton, it was the beginning of the end for Norton, soon he would be KO'd by Earnie Shavers. Norton would not be the same after his life and death battle against then WBC Champion Larry Holmes on June 9 1978.

 

Flip the chronology. Ken's draw with Scott was immediately after Earnie blasted him out. He showed with Cobb that there was still something left however, and Tex was then a top three HW in my regard, behind Holmes and Weaver. I didn't like Cooney's odds with a guy who could walk through his best shot while coming forward, and I suspect Gerry didn't either. I felt Tex beat Dokes both times, but Michael had Don King of course. (Cobb-Dokes II was especially egregious.) Norton and Cooney were the color analysts for Cobb-Shavers, an event Ken spent trying to build himself up with Gerry in Ali type fashion.

Incidentally, after what LeDoux's thumb did to Norton, I was VERY pleased at the karmic justice Larry dished out with his own thumb on Scott.

So no, I hold fast to the precept that Kenny could never handle top shelf power at any time in his career. Keep in mind that Norton was a month short of turning 27 for Garcia I. Ali II in 1973 was his first match after turning 30, and I recently broke down how and when Muhammad repeatedly drove him back or wobbled him in posting that bout. His career boxing peak started with the younger but much more ring worn Jerry Quarry in 1975, but Garcia I - O'Halloran - Henry Clark probably represented his top athletic potential.

Why the late prime? Because like Foreman, Holmes, and Frazier, he took up boxing only as a mature adult. (In Smoke's case of course, the combination of high blood pressure, arthritis and swarming style was always going to limit his prime, and he did very well to maintain it to Manila.)

 

Norton was easily beating LeDoux until he got thumbed in the eye in the 8th round, and that seemed to turn the fight around. I still thought even with LeDoux's late rally that Ken Norton clearly won the fight.

The Cobb fight was a good little slugfest underrated fight that one.