ken norton overated or underated?

It´s all relative. IMO he´s a bit underrated legacywise, but overrated head-to-head. He beat Ali 2 times out of 3, beat Holmes IMO, made some great fights against Young, Quarry, etc.. But head-to-head, I favour most ATG´s to beat him because of his suspect chin (Marciano, Jeffries, Dempsey, Frazier, Tyson, Holyfield, etc.)

 

I think he sits mostly where he should. I'd say balanced unlike many others. Norton doesn't seem to get the extremes like Tyson, Marciano and numerous others. Probably because, even at his best, he wasn't THAT fantastic.

 

I've heard more than one person complain about his entry into the Hall of Fame. How he was good but nothing exceptional in the time he fought in...

 

Norton is one of those boxers who can give even the greatest fighter nightmares (Ali, Holmes) but at the same time can look like cannon fodder in quick knockout loss against punchers. That makes him hard to rate.

 

I'd say he is probably over rated overall because of the Ali fights, his style was good to bother Ali and Holmes. He had a decent jab but his chin was bad, i have him at number 24 in my atg heavies list although he has been as high as 30 before.

 

Style to bother Holmes?

He stood there and slugged it out with Holmes and gave the man absolute hell.

 

He's truly neither, though because of the Ali trilogy some may overrate him, but is underrated because he did beat some good fighters.

 

Hi Sweetpea! :hi:


Not that much time...

How are you?

 

Yeah, SuzieQ49, I also didn´t read something from him, he´s probably under school stress or so...

 

I agree with Sonny's Jab, and I've often said so myself, that people get a bit carried away with calling Norton a " chiny " fighter. George Foreman, Earnie Shavers, and Gerry Cooney are among some of the hardest punchers. What's more, Norton fought two of those guys when he was past his best, while the third had that right combination of power and style to beat him. The fact is, Ken was one of the most best conditioned fighters in the sport's history. He never showed up out of shape. In 42 wins, he had victories over Ali, Quarry, Bobick, Young, Zannon, Cobb, Kirkman, and an avenged loss to Luis Garcia. Some also feel that he was robbed in his final meeting against Ali, and was possibly the toughest fight that a peak Larry Holmes ever had. No, I wouldn't say that he deserves to be rated quite as high as Ali, Frazier, Foreman, or Holmes, but frankly, I suspect that had he fought during some other era's, he might have been a respectable lineal champion.

The original author of this thread, asked what Norton is doing today. I'm not exactly sure myself, but I know that for the last 25 years or so, he's lived a pretty hard life of disability due to a car accident on the Santa Monica freeway during the early 80's. His son Ken Norton Jr. Was a very successful NFL football player during the 90's, and I believe is now retired himself.

 

Very good post.