HOLMES V NORTON - Great Fight.... BUT

I more or less agree with points 1-3, but on this one, i'm not sure.

Chuvalo is most dangerous when you're flat-footed as well, and he landed some hard body shots. Ali was wide ahead, but i would imagine he'd rather avoid them if he could. But he didn't.

Now, Norton doesn't apply the same amount of pressure, but i'm not sure if he could dance all the way through.

 

I thought Holmes won exactly 8 rounds to 7.

I believe I gave Holmes rounds 1-7, and 13.

I thought Norton won the infamous final round, but Holmes had already clinched the decision when he won the 13th.

 

Did you know that all three judges had the fight dead even going into the last round? Two gave the round to Holmes, one to Norton. I've always thought Norton deserved the final round, but Holmes had already won 8 rounds before that.

 

Keep watching after the 12th. :good

 

I'd rather watch JT's chick there ....

I think all agree it was an extremely close fight ... Norton was still at the top of his game and came into the fight in tremendous shape ... Holmes was slightly injured but came to fight and would not pass on his shot at the title

...The fight really could have gone either way ... Holmes had that huge 13th and Norton came back for the big 14th ... Norton won the first two minutes of the 15th but Holmes rallied and staggered him in the final 45 seconds ...

There should have been an immediate rematch but for some political reason Norton was forced to fight an elimination bout against Shavers and we know how that turned out ...

It's nice to see Norton get some respect here from some posters as I feel he is terribly underated on the whole ... we know he did not match up well against huge punchers but was murder for almost everyone else ...

 

:good

Actually i can answer this, and i only just found out the other day.

Holmes said Norton would never get a rematch because he "had nothing to gain from it", immediately after the fight.

No kidding. If anyone really debates it i'll find the mag/page number etc.

 

And therein lies the difference between Ali and Holmes.
Which is why to this day people respect Holmes but don't really like him.

 

Yeah, the one big area Holmes falls down in is in granting deserved rematches and not fighting two maybe three peeps in his second half end of prime. Both Norton and Witherspoon deserved immediate rematches and them along with Thomas (for a fight) were told in no uncertain terms twasn't happening.

 

dont forget that Larry was fighting with one arm for most of the fight

i had him winning by 2

 

I thought Holmes won the final round. If you look at who was doing the best for the longest period of the round it was Norton. However, if you watch the last 20-25 seconds that was the most dominant part of the round for either fighter and it belonged to Holmes. Norton was edging Holmes, just, throughout the rest of the round. But IMO Holmes won the round based on the entire three minutes. It's arguable though, no question.

 

Yeah, Foreman really didn't want a rematch. :think

 

That's prolly the only example tho, where Holmes has multiple. The other thing is Ali did soundly beat Foreman, where Witherspoon, Weaver, Norton, Williams etc were very tight affairs.

 

Well, there's Young, Norton 4 maybe. It's not as if Ali left little doubt after those defences. Kenny and Jimmy had to fight for the right but still, no title shot, which went to Spinks. So Norton had to fight an eliminator, just like he did with Shavers when Holmes was champ. Yes, if Ali beat Spinks then Norton was next, but he'd been saying that for 18 months anyway and kept fudging the issue. Also, Foreman was mandatory of course, many of the Holmes ones weren't.

 

i meant 144 to 143 for holmes