Leon Spinks vs. Ken Norton in 1978

Kenny by UD over "Neon" Leon in 1978...

 

I think Coetzee's bionic right carried more wallop than anything Kenny had.
I would pick Norton by UD but it would be interesting to see how he coped with Leons relentless pressure if Leon was in the right state of mind

 

Norton would beat Spinks by a UD over 15, but Leon would have his moments against Ken.

 

Styles make fights..... Norton was NOT as good as a pure boxer with decent power like "Ali & Holmes," but Norton would eat Leon Stinks alive in 1978....... Stinks would walk right into Ken Norton and trade punches..... A bigger, stronger Norton wallops Stinks into a mid round KO defeat......

MR.BILL:yep

 

Spinks had his hands full in that toe to toe fight with Ledoux just before the Ali sweepstakes. Toe to toe with Norton is going to be much harder and tougher to do. A motivated Norton==and since this should've been a title bout he would have been near his best== would win every minute of every round against the guy. Leon was always right in front of opponents and hardly sported a tight defense in there. And he sure liked to exchange. But he didn't hit all that hard as a heavy and I don't think he backs Kenny up. Norton hurts him to the body and then comes over the top for a 5 or 6 round tko in a lopsided bout.

Other guys around during that 78 timeframe were a tough matches for Leon as well; Holmes. old Shavers even. Knoetze and Coetzee. Tate was making waves in 78. Guys on the periphery like Weaver/Ward/old Lyle/Mercado/Gardner/ and so on would've been hard fights. Leon won the sweepstakes getting that Ali fight at the right time and he rose big on the night he had to. But he was not going to face the top level competition without some losses.