How much credit do you give Norton for beating Quarry?

Yep,...that too. The latter part of Quarry's career was one vast fustercluck jowcol!

 

It has been said that Quarry stopped Norton on at least two occasions in sparring.

 

I'm just stating what's in the book man. Read it and you'll get more info. I'm just telling what happened without going into two pages worth of details. Quarry actually comes off looking much better out of the 2 in the book.

 

Yes I forgot about that!!..The thing with Norton was that he was involving a woman into the mix. That was what sent Quarry into a rage. I'll have to grab my book and revisit what exactly happened

 

Kenny had an arrogance about him. He loved him some Ken Norton! I could see it rubbing some the wrong way.

 

Larry Holmes apparently didn't like Norton either going into their fight, saying that Norton was pompous and arrogant.

 

Norton by many accounts was an arrogant guy and many opponents did not like him .. I remember him being quoted before the Bobick saying he was watching video tapes of Roots over and over to psyche himself up .. Holmes disliked him. Foreman was indifferent. He was a ***** to Quarry but wanted no part of Jerry in the street .. Tex Cobb was drunk after their fight in the total later that evening and was calling Norton out to fight and Ken hid behind his room door .. pretty smart on that one as Cobb in the street would be brutal ..

 

Actually I think the parking lot altercation, was outside a casino, was a couple years after their fight. Best I remember the story was Norton hittng on Jerry's ex wife (the first one), she told Jerry, Jerry caught up with Norton in the parking, wanting to beat Norton's ass, Norton replied "God does want us to fight today", and drove away in his car.

Now back to the thread topic, Norton probably looked the best he ever did in this fight. The problem with giving Norton much credit is he was fighting possibly the world's oldest 29 year old in Quarry. Jerry looked like crap vs Joe Alexander, and even worse vs Joe Frazier (who looked the best in that fight since the 1st Ali fight) and was lucky to get a decision vs George "Scrap Iron" Johnson.

Jerry took the fight for two reasons, he needed the money (trying to keep his wife Charlie happy was an expensive task) and I think Jerry thought he could out tough Norton, knowing he had always gotten the best of Norton in sparring sessions in the past.

 

I find that kind of hard to believe honestly. Seems really out of character for Norton, unless I've really misread him.

 

Really? Because in interviews and commentaries he strikes me as a vey humble no-nonsense kind of guy. For instance when he was calling the Holmes-Cobb fight (I think it was that one anyway) Cosell brought up Shavers' name, and Norton went out of his way to stress what a nice guy Shavers was.

 

Where did you hear that, out of curiosity?

 

I remember him praising Shavers during the Cobb-Shavers fight. According to Shavers at the press conference for his fight against Norton, Don King was making it sound like Holmes-Norton 2 was going to happen. This angered Earnie, and when he got up to speak he told King, "you forgot about me", then he turned to Norton and said "Kenny I'm going to destroy you!". Instead of rising to the occasion, Norton just sat there passively and said "Earnie we're both going to make a lot of money", Shavers shot back saying "I'm the only one who's gonna remember that!"

 

A prime for prime fight play's out a lot different IMO .Quarry maybe giving Norton hell .I reckon that goes the distance ,good enough for a sequel. By the actual fight Quarry had lost a lot of him self. Ken had no excuse not to win that .

 

I reckon Norton would always have had the beating of Quarry although a prime Jerry would have been more competitive.

 

I believe that but I'd keep in mind that was his public persona .. look he was once an intelligent, young, great looking, well paid, highly skilled professional athlete in a scummy business filled with eccentric characters ... I"m sure he had more than a few sides to him ..