Ken Norton on great jabs......

Norton always hated Holmes guts and could hardly even give him credit in his book for putting up such a great fight in 78 against him ... no offense to Ali but I personally thought both Holmes and Foreman's jabs were more dominating .. Ali dominated with a combo of his jab and his movement .. Holmes and Foreman had jabs that dominated fights on their own merit ..

 

What was the reason for Norton and Holmes' mutual dislike ?

 

Yeah Stevie, it's a line of bs that a lot of fighters indulge in I notice..definitely an ego thing.

 

I don't know.
Holmes has said Norton was always aloof and looked down on him. I'm not sure Norton has even commented on it, but from the Champions Forever videos it can be seen that Norton just ignores Holmes almost as if he doesn't believe Holmes is worthy of being with them.
Of course, there might well me more to it.

 

Both guys did comment on each other in their respective books ... Norton thought Holmes was a disrespectful, street punk, loud mouth Ali want to be ... Holmes felt Norton acted arrogant and holier than thou like he was bette than him ... I believe their initial encounter went something like Norton saying that Holmes was taller than him, maybe he was better than him too in a joking fashion of a sort and Holmes responded that he was .. it started from there I believe ...

 

For all his pretentiousness and lack of honesty, I always like Norton..thought him to be an intelligent, likeable guy..and I definitely thought he too smart to fall for any of Ali's head games like so many did.

 

George's jab seemed slow motion, but it hit the mark every time. George's breath-taking power sometimes overshadows the fact that he was a great boxing technician also.

 

Muhammad always said that Ken was the one guy whom he could never figure out. There was a lot of mutual respect there.

 

Norton was a bright guy with a good vocabulary..maybe that's why Holmes didn't like him..no regional accent, lucid..he said to Cosell in the ring being interviewed after beating Ali the first time that he followed Eddie Futch's instructions "implicitly"..I noticed that right away and thought, there's no reason why an athlete, especially a boxer, can't use intelligent sounding words and diction and be literate sounding. Norton was to damned smart to be conned by Ali and he had a style that was pure poison for the "Greatest"..and would have been poison for him at any stage of their respective careers, IMO.

 

I've long thought that Norton was at least as tough for Muhammad as Frazier was,in his own way.

 

i agree with you 100% on this! Both men presented a different aspect of difficulty to Ali..Fraziers was physicality..overwhelming stamina volume and power which is the perfect counter-component to Ali's style, whereas norton's offering was a more strategic, stylisically awkward antidote to Ali.

 

That reminds me of a British welterweight we had called Sylvester Mittee.

I think he once said, "There is a popular misconception that professional boxers are monosyllabic buffoons" ...

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I remember him well.

 

IMV Holmes jab was the best.

Larry had comparable speed on his jab to Ali and more pop. He put more smoke on his jab. I believe Mr Holmes once knocked down a contender with his jab. I dont remember who it was.

It was sort of a cross between Sonny Liston`s jab and Ali. It was the perfect left lead.

It was a point builder, a table setter and he could bust you up with it. Holmes used it as an offensive weapon and as a defensive weapon. He could buy time, control distance keep his opponent from getting off.