I agree. I never saw the controversy of this fight whatsoever. I'm still perplexed that it was an SD rather than a unanimous decision win for Ali. You'd have to give Norton every benefit of the doubt, and then some to even come close to a draw.
He probably didn't count round by round, just felt that he was well on top for large parts of the fight and landed the most damaging blows, so I can see how he felt that way.
I think that was a pretty spot on analysis for that fight, though, but the judges had it very narrowly for Ali. So the cards were reasonable for anyone who thought it was a close fight. Ali was, as you said, very good at just nicking rounds and that might be why the decision has become so controversial.
Yeah maybe. I'll try to find the exact quote but he said (while sitting next to Ali) "The first 2 fights could've gone either way, but the second the bell rung for the 3rd, I knew I won".
Did he really say the first could have gone either way? I'm pretty sure he said that about the second, but the first?
"The two first fights were close, they could have gone either way, but I knew as soon as the bell rang I won the third fight. https://books.google.com/books?id=6...the bell rang I won the third fight."&f=false