Ken Norton - stylistic nightmare?

Haye would murder Norton way before Ken can "chin" him. Wlad, dito. Norton's power is good but nothing special.

 

Norton hit hard enough. Let's stop with the Haye hype until he proves something at heavyweight.

 

Most of the guys Haye fought were as big as Norton when they entered the ring. When has Norton ever scored a KO as explosive as Haye did against Mormeck, Mac, or Barret?

 

Kenny was one of the most underestimated heavyweight champions ever. I think he would be a massive force in todays division, he was hungry and extremely well conditioned.. Norton would have made a lot of todays so called major players look basic.. That style (crossarm) would have sent a lot of todays heavys nuts and they would have not had the foresight to deal with just the counterpunching style and his underrated power.. Ibragimov would have been made to look like a complete novice.

 

No doubt.

But Norton is a good enough boxer to avoid Haye for a couple of rounds. I'm sure you'll make the point of 'Like he did against Foreman' but Foreman is a different fighter from Haye, who is usually cagey in the opening few rounds.

I think Norton would win a couple of rounds from neutralising Haye's bombs. Of course, there is also the chance Haye will land, then I'd say he has a good chance of finishing Norton.

But if Norton can land a stiff dig on Haye, he will wobble him, no doubt. Haye got knocked down by a grazing hook from Monte Barrett!

I'm a huge fan of Haye and am dead certain that he will charge Wlad in the first round and stop him (just to prove a point) It's the only outcome for me.

But Norton was a great fighter, and H2H would cause Haye a lot of problems.

Haye K.O 6.

 

Ali was way out of shape in fight 1 & way over the hill in fight 3 vs Norton.

I thought a fit & focused Ali beat Norton close but clear in their 2nd fight.
I also thought Holmes beat Ken by a decent margin, none of those fights should have been splits IMO, both UDs for Ali & Holmes.

 

Even punchers like David Tua are tough mathcups for Kenny. Or Mercer. But the boxer types like a Ruiz or Byrd sure wouldn't matchup very well with him & Kenny can be very formidable against the optimal opposition. There hasn't been a better conditioned guy since nor anybody with a consistent body attack like Norton's. Man, these guys in recent times wouldn't like getting hit 12-15 times a round to the breadbasket.

I would've like to have seen Kenny in more dangerous waters > the Foreman bout tho. Perhaps not a Foreman rematch but other big hitters like Lyle & Shavers had been chasing him for years before getting him in the ring. Coetzee in 78/79 would've been a good matchup & I wanted to see Kenny in there with John Tate when he was on his winning streak. It would've been interesting to see if Kenny could've broke down Tate.

 

Dokes and Page would've given Norton problems.

 

Whether you agreed with the verdict in that one or not,it was still a very close one.

 

True,but they'd have lost to Ken,imo.

 

A lot of those less than perfect shape 80's heavies aren't absorbing that Norton body punishment. You're talking non-stop 12 or 15 rounds of body shots. They didn't have a big fight ending shot to get Kenny out of there and they certainly didn't have his conditioning. I even think his oddball jab presents a bunch of problems to the Pinklon Thomas and Page and Dokes types and they take too long to solve Norton. And in the meantime it's hard right hands and left hooks to the body and they aren't in any kind of condition to absorb that stuff w/o showing major deterioration as rounds progress. And lose rounds.