Joseph Parker vs prime Ken Norton

Parker is fast for a SHW - and much stronger

Norton could only compete if he were LITERALLY as good as Usyk

Which is kinda doubtful

 

Improvement? Todays heavyweights are one mediocre bunch.

 

Just to put it into perspective not long ago most of the top 10 Heavyweights were filled with Heavyweights in their late 30s and early 40s.

If people think the likes of Zhang, Hrgovic, Wilder, Parker who I like BTW, are an improvement over the likes of Tyson, Lewis, Foreman, Holmes, Ali, then I'm not even going to bother acknowledging that poster.

 

Don't forget that formidable beast Andy Ruiz,,,,lol!

 

I think the era of HWs

struggles mightily against the era of SHWs.

Men like Fury, AJ and Parker may dominate through sheer SIZE and strength - more than many would like to admit

 

Joshua got beat handily by Usyk who's similar size of alot of Heavyweights from 70s, 80s, 90s.

How did he beat Joshua ? Because of his skill.

I'm not saying size in some match ups wouldn't make a difference, but not in all cases either where some posters automatically pick modern Heavyweight just based on size.

Remember Cunningham who is a Cruiserweight was ahead on a points and floored Fury heavily aswell.

 

Your arguments are very good, but, I would put my money on Parker - I somewhat view him as the slightly bigger and more skilled fighter than Norton. I don't think Norton would have been a ranked heavyweight contender today. Your arguments are valid, and I might be wrong.

 

Norton dismantles Parker. Infinitely more nuanced combination puncher, infinitely better inside, better head-movement, harder puncher, better technician, better rhythm, more heart, more awkward, better conditioning.

Parker has chin and weight on Kenny. Is all.

 

Well, I sure would like to see how Kenny reacts if a 243 pound Parker connects on Norton's jaw... Norton was very effective vs 210 pound boxers who fought with straight blows. I don't think Norton would have the courage to trade with Parker. And, Norton had more heart? Hmm... That's tough one, Sir... Apparently Mr. Norton forgot his heart vs. Foreman and Shavers.

 

Norton UD. His style would match up well against Joe, who isn't a big puncher.

 

It's a boxing forum, not a diet forum. Pounds help, but there is much more to power than lbs alone, otherwise we would hail Campolo, Carnera, Mathis, Miller, and the likes as the greatest punchers to ever lace them, but we don't. Much lighter Liston, Foreman, and Shavers were leagues more devastating.

Parker is average as far as power goes. Norton could hang in there with Garcia, Quarry, Ali, and Holmes. While bobbing, weaving, and cross arming he was far from being easy to blow away.

Losing to a focused, prime Foreman (with Archie Moore and Sandy Saddler in his corner) is nothing to be ashamed of. The man was an absolute terminator. A bad Joe Louis. And neither is losing to Earnie while past it. Norton had the heart to go through fifteen round wars (especially the 15th of Norton-Holmes) and three of his opponents are literal top 10 all-time great heavyweights.

 

These delusional matchups between smaller HWs from the old days

vs mobile SHW behemoths like AJ, Fury and Parker

are just a waste of space.

Imagine whatever you like. "A good big man will always beat a good small man"

Only the Usyk's of this world can break this obvious rule

 

I like Parker and he's one of my favorite HWs, but let's be real. He is not a SHW in modern era. He'd be a SHW in the Rocky Marchiano era but today he's rather average-sized guy for HW division.

And being 240+ doesn't mean that much if your punching power is average. Foreman, Tyson, Liston, Shavers, Wilder etc all hit million times harder than Parker while being 220 lbs or less.

As for Norton's best oppenents who went life and death vs him - Ali and Holmes. Both were just 1 inch shorter than Parker and both had longer arms, so it's not like Parker is some incredibly sized behemoth compared to Holmes and Ali. Neither was known as a very hard hitter, but Parker isn't too, obviously, as he has scored only 7 KOs in last 17 wins since he stepped up in competition (since Takam fight) - and all these stoppages came against weaker opposition. All the biggest wins of Parker's career were scored on points.

On the other hand, Parker is fast, skilled and has sturdy chin, so I don't think there'd be a KO in this fight.

 

Norton’s biggest issue was hard hitters like Foreman and Shavers, against lighter punchers he was very difficult to beat just look at the Ali and Holmes fights he was extremely competitive and a lot would argue won most of these fights

Parker wouldn’t be able to keep Kenny off him and wouldn’t be able to hurt or push him back so a hard fought decision win to the Jawbreaker