Kid Norfolk vs Bill Tate?

I don't mean that he had a great jab or even a good jab, I meant that he has a jab, because it's about the only punch he threw from what I saw, outside of a couple of wild right hand attempts.

Perhaps he found it difficult to deal with such a short opponent. How would Valuev for example deal with someone who's 5'8 or 5'9? Especially if the opponent was doing their best to make himself even shorter as Norfolk was doing. Tate just couldn't get off at all.

 

I was mostly looking at what Norfolk was doing and didn't pay much attention to Tate, who was basically doing whatever he could to survive the distance. There's a lot to criticize about his non-effort but I'd give credit to Norfolk for being a quick, explosive fighter who was overwhelming a man 50 lbs heavier and 10 inches taller than him.

I don't think Tate was outrageously bad or anything. He actually reminds me of Jess Willard a lot in the early rounds against Jack Johnson. Flat-footed, defensive and occasionally throwing the jab. Willard of course turned it up late in the fight while Tate never did.

 

If you want to see something truly horrible then watch Lovell's effort against Joe Bugner:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZNUrHpnI34[/ame]


He is hilariously bad for a veteran of 40+ fights who also scored some decent wins.

 

To be honest I did contemplate that possibility when first watching the fight, but then there's no real proof outside of Tate's lacking performance and Norfolk was doing a good job with his boxing.