By mid 80s Holmes has slowed down as was shown by Spinks fights. I think Norton outworks him and gets a competitive, but clear win like 9-6.
Nah. Holmes won't be able to keep Norton off him at all. I see Norton winning more like 11-4 or 12-3 with Larry doing everything he can to survive. Without his legs, Holmes will really struggle to keep Norton off him.
I don't really see the point of this match up TBH of course Norton would win that's a no brainer. Holmes would obviously have to be in his prime to beat Norton as the 1978 version of Holmes had a very competitive fight with Norton as we see in real time. And clearly by 1985-1986 Holmes was aging and ready to be taken so he's clearly not beating a good version of Norton at that time. Probably a more interesting fight would be having the version of Norton who fought Tex Cobb/Scott LeDoux vs the Holmes of the mid 80s.
The aged version of Norton would win comfortably let alone the peak version from half a decade before.
