Is Norton's resume comparable to Frazier's?

Frazier's one victory over Ali was vastly better than anything Norton ever did.

 

Ken Norton's win resume is weak as hell.

I also dont know that I buy that Norton "did better" against Ali. Frazier beat Ali's ass in the first fight and arguably only lost the second fight due to the referee allowing Ali to incessantly hold. If youre going to claim that Norton would have won 2 against Ali with "fair" officiating then you can put Ali-Frazier 2 into that category. Frazier certainly did far more damage to Ali in their three fights than Norton ever did. In Norton's best outing of the three he got a SD in a bout where his opponent fought most of the fight with a broken jaw. To add to that Frazier beat a prime Bonavena, prime Chuvalo, prime Quarry (who Norton avoided for years) combined with his legendary victory over Ali and you have four fights that trump anything Norton ever did unless you think he actually deserved his victory over Joes other sparring partner Jimmy Young, which I sure as hell dont. I dont see how anyone could possibly begin to make the argument that Norton has a better record than Frazier when Frazier beat most of their common opponents long before Norton ever got to them and did it more convincingly. Norton is damn lucky that he was Frazier's friend and sparring partner preventing them from fighting because if they had fought nobody would have ever felt the need to vote Norton's underwhelming record into the HOF.

 

Frazier beat more quality fighters, and didn't get his **** pushed in by average contenders. So no.

 

No.

 

The answer is...no...

 

I think they're somewhat close but Frazier's resume is better.. The versions of Ali and Quarry who Joe beat were younger and either prime or closer to it. He didn't start off his career with a loss to a fighter like Jose Garcia either. In fact, he was beating men like Chuvalo right at about the same stage that Ken acquired that loss. I disagree wlth someone who said that Norton's win list is weak. But Joe has to get the nod by virtue of having A few better wins and a few less defeats

 

Frazier beat better fighters such as prime versions of Quarry ,Ellis, and Bonavena. Norton's resume is poor in comparison.

 

Frazier beat better versions of Ali and Quarry. Ali was not just older but not in the best shape for his first fight with Kenny Norton. Norton wasn`t that highly regarded going into the fight.

I would have given a prime Quarry a good shot at beating Kenny.

 

Norton is underrated, for sure. People never give him a pass on his later losses and draw, even though he was over 35. I actually consider him to be Ali's toughest opponent. Muhammad never figured him out.

Still, Frazier has the better resume, though in part it's because he was smart enough to retire a bit younger. If he'd stuck around between Foreman II and Cummings, he'd probably have a very similar ledger to Norton.

 

I agree with you. Norton was one opponent Ali could never pepper. He peppered Frazier, he peppered Liston, he peppered Foreman, he peppered Quarry but never Norton. Not in 3 fights.

 

Ken Norton wasn't close to being in Joe Frazier's class in any way, especially when it comes to their resumes. George Foreman was the only contemporary fighter that Joe Frazier could not match up with while Norton simply could not cope with the top heavyweights who were big punchers. The only top heavyweights that Norton could be competitive with were boxer-types such as Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Young and Larry Holmes. Even then, Norton was never able to do more than win two narrow decisions when facing the likes of Ali, Young or Holmes, losing three other bouts while fighting them.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I think they did equally well against Ali. There's so little separating that it's not worth arguing about. Besides that Joe has the better wins in prime versions of Bonavena, Quarry, Ellis and Bugner.

 

Even if you accept that Norton did better against Ali, you then have to ask what his second, third, and fourth best wins are.

Norton on had a win over Ali, Frazier had a resume.