Gene Tunney v Ken Norton

I think Nortons advantage in weight, reach, height, and physical strength and awkward style would be hell on earth for Tunney to deal with....

When you fight men much bigger then you who out weigh you by 35-40 lbs, it really tires you quicker and you lose strength in your legs, arms etc and that's it your done...

In a 15 round fight Norton stops him sometime after the 11th round....

 

I thought Jimmy Young edged Ken and Tunney had a stronger offence then Jimmy. Tunney by several rounds.

 

Not a fair posting towards Ken who was clearly past his best days and in his last bout. Ken won 6 of the first 7 rounds against Scotty then had nothing left. LeDoux would likely have had a ko win but thought the bell had rung before it actually had in the 10th.

 

I am a huge Tunney fan but people are getting caught up with the mystique of the name and the legend of the man who conquered Dempsey. But let's put things in perspective. Tunney was a antecedent of Roy Jones, a light heavy who played a game of capture the flag with the heavyweight title. He fought a handful of smaller, over the hill heavy contenders (most of whom were actual light heavies), got the title under conducive circumstances and got out of the division (and the game). The best heavies he faced were Greb (167 pounds), a used up Gibbons (179) and a finished Dempsey (190)… None of these guys was near prime (taking Greb from their final fight) and none of the size and athletic peak of a prime Norton.

Norton, for his few, pronounced shortcomings toiled exclusively as a heavyweight in era where the guys went 15 rounds and were a good 20 pounds bigger. He also beat a close to prime version of Ali, and overall against Ali won about 21 of 35 rounds. That accomplishment is greater than Tunney's two defeats of Dempsey over 20 rounds.

So, throw out the mystique of the Tunney name and look at their careers. Tunney was an opportunistic heavyweight. Norton took on all comers. Stylistically, this is not what Tunney would prefer while it is what Norton would like. Norton by 12UD.

 

Norton's fight with Scott was not his last fight. His last fight was his less-than-three minutes annihilation at the hands of Gerry Cooney.

 

What's more incredible is that someone would pick a performance on the ass end of a man's career to determine the outcome of a fantasy fight when two men were at their best.

 

Norton was good against the average punchers and boxing type of fighter but I think Gene does enough to edge a UD

 

I would put my money on Norton.

He is just so much more than Tunney ever fought. Tunney could out jab the under six-footers he made his rep against. Dempsey was as tall as Tunney, but a jab wasn't part of his game plan.

Norton at 6' 3" and with a great jab--he was able to out jab Ali--is in an entirely different league from anyone Tunney fought. I think Norton's jab will negate Tunney's mobility and I don't think the much smaller Tunney will have the power to back Norton up.

Norton by a decision, probably, but I can see him stopping Tunney late.

*heavies have gotten larger, but it is not exactly that Norton is out of this world bigger than anyone of the Tunney era. Wills and Godfrey were as big, or bigger, than Norton. But Tunney didn't fight any of the big fellows of his own era at all. And none of them would have had that jab that Norton had.

**This is a case of Norton having just the weapons to handle Tunney. Dempsey had just the tools to handle Norton.

 

some good points made here :good

 

Norton does match up stylistically better against Tunney than he does against many other greats, but I just don't see him getting the knockout at any stage. He wasn't the type to really stop guys late, and Tunney had superior conditioning. If Norton has success with the jab, I think he'd be more than content to sit on that for a points win. The lack of killer instinct cost him against Ali in the third fight when I thought he paid Muhammad a little too much respect instead of really going after it.

I'm not saying I'd favor Norton (as Tunney had better movement than the versions of Ali that Norton fought and better all around skills, although there'd be a significant size disadvantage), but I think this is a more winnable fight for him than many of the other Norton matchups I see on here. It's tough for me to edge a favorite; neither man has much on his resume for us to correlate how a matchup between the two would go.

 

Ok, good point. Norton did appear, though, to be in excellent shape for the Ledoux fight. Perhaps Norton's fight with Young would be more relevant. Like many other fans, I think Young won. Jimmy was a great boxer, as was Tunney, but he lacked Gene's self-discipline and punching power.

 

Ray Leonard appeared to be in excellent shape against Camacho.

 

True.