Been watching some clips of Norton today for the first time in years. What always sticks out is just how good of a body puncher he was. I posted the clip below in another thread today but felt like Ken deserved a post of his own for how great he was. It is absolutely unreal the Ali stayed standing after the shot below. https://youtube.com/shorts/0vNVzVK23WY?si=3vV5PJi_LelyZ0tg
Perfect clip to highlight that punch. Extremely hard and the placement was perfect. Just watching it is enough to make you upchuck yourself. How Ali took that let alone remain viably connected to fight on we’ll never know.
I must’ve misread. I can see how it might’ve come across as lame sorry AS863. As a side I made a thread you might’ve found interesting on a similar topic. Norton executed a very similar plan as Louis wrote about in the 60s (i think) to beat Muhammad. I do think it was well intentioned to have Ken focus on the body against Ali - A sustained effort against someone with not much of an uppercut really gave Norton great opportunities to square up and throw shots. I think he had a lot of leverage in his punches to the liver and short ribs but I believe his cement feet and standing with his lead between there’s, would’ve been taken advantage of at some point against better fighters IMO. I’d call him a solid but not the greatest body puncher.
Norton thumped Ali perfectly with that left hook. No doubt about that. Any lesser man probably takes a knee. At the least. But let's put it into perspective. Ali was on his very last legs in that fight. He looked soft TBH. Yet with all that, Norton couldn't find the gear to put Ali away. Norton landed a brutal shot on an old man and didn't take any advantage of it. That doesn't prove he's a goat of anything. Give me Louis's right hand on Schmeling 2nd fight. Or Tyson’s body shots Or Fraziers Or even Quarry's Cooney’s, Morrison's Holyfield's, Bowe, and many other great body punchers at heavyweight over that one and done shot from Norton. Norton was a very good heavyweight, during a very deep era. But he was G.O.A.T of nothing..... ..
Not the GOAT at all in this regard but Ken could work the body very well. Relative to the windows of opportunity that did allow Liston access to Ali’s midsection and flanks, Sonny really gave it to Ali in the body also. Fancy having both an ATG chin and ATG body in terms of resilience. Though, in the long run, having both was a bit of curse for Ali.
I'll concede that I should not have used GOAT in my title and will admit to being a little drunk when I made the thread after watching Norton clips. A more accurate statement would be to put him towards the top but maybe not quite the GOAT is there is such a thing.
Heavily underrated as a body puncher would have been fair. His body punching is rarely ever acknowledged but as you point out he was a gun at it.
All good bro - we’re not playing for sheep stations (though some might think they are - lol), just good old fun boxing talk. Funny thing is, just a few beers bring out the dyslexia in me. I’m not at all drunk per se, but the first thing affected is my ability to type. It’s a good thing - it prevents me from posting altogether when I’m imbibing at the same time. I’m jealous of @JohnThomas1 though, he is high functioning in that regard - drinking while posting at the same time, that is. Haha, of course kidding JT.
