If Norton officially won the 3rd fight with Ali, does he rank ahead of Frazier?

As most of you are probably aware, Norton was robbed blind vs Ali in their third match in 1976. Both Frazier and Norton beat Ali. Fraizer won his fight in 1971, Norton won his in 1973.

If we compare Frazier's and Norton's resume of wins vs the best fighters of their time how would it look? I will list the wins for each man in close order of how I would rank the fighters.

Frazier's best wins:

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, Ellis, Ellis, Machen, Bugner, Mathis, Bonevenna, Bonevenna, Chavalo,

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, D. Jones and B. Foster.

Norton's best wins:

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Young,

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, Garica, Kirkman, Bobick, Clark,

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, Cobb, Zannon, Lovell, O'Hallorhan, and Middleton.

The fighters in Gold are the common opponents. While Frazier's resume of wins is a bit deeper overall ( mostly at the bottom ), I do think Norton did better vs the same common opponents.

The question of the thread is, if Norton officially won the 3rd Ali fight, is his resume of win's better than Frazier's? I think so. Ali's name carries a lot of weight.

Let's say you were asked a hypotechical question of who's resume is better without names between fighters being fighter A and fighter B

Fighter A beat:

Ali
Ali
Quarry
Young
Garcia
Kirkman

Fighter B beat:

Ali
Quarry
Quarry
Ellis
Ellis
Machen

For me this is an easy choice Figher A's resume is easily better. Of course fighter A here is Norton, and Fighter B is Frazier.

Discuss.

 

Was he? From 1975-1976, Ali beat Frazier, Lyle, Young, and *Norton! These two years is a huge legacy all by itself.

In additon, Ali won a big match in 1977 vs Shavers. I don't think you can say ALi was " shot " in 1976 when Norton beat him. " Shot " fighters lose when they are matched vs highly ranked opponents. You can say Ali was slightly past his best, though Ali by 1976 had added some new skills and tactics that he did not have in the early 1970's. That is clinching, coutner punching, and rope-a-dope.

 

Bonavena was not that great, and he nearly uspet Fraizer by knocking him down twice. I still contend the 1976 Ali that Norton faced was far better than anyone Frazier beat not named Ali.

 

Frazier won the title by beating nearly the same Ali that Norton did. Then as world champion Frazier fought Daniles and Stander. These are very weak title defenses. Norton creamed Stander worse than Frazier did. If Norton got the offical win over Ali in 1976, he could have two easy title defenses vs the Stander's or Wepner's of boxing too.

I see no evdience that Ali badly declined from 1975 to 1976. None. As I said before the 1976 Ali that Norton beat but did not get the judges decsion trumps Frazier's next best win by a good margin. This is the key point. Very few fair minded fans think Ali defeated Norton in the thrid fight. It was a bad decsion. Among the worst in heavyweight title fights.

As for Foreman, Norton is 0-1 vs him, Frazier is 0-2 vs Foreman. Frazier never mixed it with big punchers besides Foreman. We just can't give him automatic wins vs a guy like Shavers, because Shavers hit just as hard as Foreman did and we all saw how easily Foreman knocked Frazier out.