Ken Norton's losses to Earnie and Gerry

six months before Cooney Ken went a fast and impressive ten rounds w a young and undefeated Cobb. Norton folded under big punchers.. he could not fight backing up

 

I’d have to rewatch it again but I remember Norton doing pretty good thru the first round and perhaps part way into the 2nd round.

I do believe Foreman saw that he might encounter protracted difficulties if he didn’t put the pedal to the metal as he did.

Again, it’s been a while since I watched it but I think one can isolate it to a single punch that sent Ken on his one way slippery slope.

Ken was backing away from Foreman in round 2 when George caught him solidly with a long right hand - his most solid connection up to that point - that punch started Ken on his way.

Mind you, Foreman flagrantly fouled Norton after his second fall. When Ken arose, with the ref between them, Foreman swung a no mean left, basically a free shot, that snapped Norton’s head but Ken took it -

Foreman’s follow up was fearsome - all power shots (5 in total I think) and it looked like he couldn’t miss if he tried. The executions might not have suggested same but prime Foreman was incredibly accurate with his full tilt power shots.

Even after the final KD, Norton still clawed his way back up before the count of 10 but the referee rightly stopped the fight.

So yeah, his jaw was decent but his psychological reaction to a big shot wasn’t so good - I see parallels between Ken and AJ in that regard.

No, they both didn’t/don’t have a granite chins but their mental reactions to big shots self fulfilled their eventual defeats somewhat.

Ali and Holmes were decent hitters but they didn’t have quite the power to push Norton’s self destruct button.

In fact, the way Norton took Muhammad’s and Larry’s punches gave a false perception as to how much more potential power Norton could take before folding.

 

Cooneys wins over Norton, Jimmy and Lyle mean something. The problem is its late enough we have no idea what that actually is.