Curious how Norris would have fared if he had fought in the DeLeon Parkey, Holyfield, Tillman era? I did see where Norris was a good cruiser in the 1990's but would he have been competitive with the cruisers of yesterday and today if he was in his prime and never had to fight as a heavyweight?
He would of competed well with prime DeLeon, and I think would of beaten Parkey, Benton, Murphy or Tillman. Prime 190lbs Qawi (85-86) would of been too much for him LTKO10 And Holyfield would also of beaten him LKO7
Orlin if my memory serves me correct had a nice little defence.Kind of reminded me of Starling on how he kept his hands up.
I think Orlin would have beaten most of the cruiserweights (leaving out Holyfield) that came before him. That first generation of cruiserweights was extremely weak imho.
I recently watched his fight against Andrew Golota, and although Golota got the decision, I had the fight a draw. I'll have to watch more of Norris's fights.
Prime Deleon had too much overall slickness. He would have outpointed Norris. Holyfield had too much handspeed. He would have outpointed Norris. Parkey would have played right into Norris's hands because Parkey liked to stand and trade. Norris by decision or late rounds TKO. Tillman had medicore defense and liked to stand and trade. Norris by decision or late rounds tko. Ocasio would have stunk out the joint but may have won a boring decision over him. Dwight Braxton v. Norris would be an interesting technical battle, but I'd give the edge to Dwight.
Always thought he was underrated to a degree. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
He had a strong performance against Vassily Jirov late in his career. Around that time I think it would have been fun if he'd been matched up with Zuri Lawrence, another skillful mover who lacked pop.
He would have been quite competitive. He would have probably garnered a title by 1989 or 1990. The division was quite weak post Holyfield. Prime DeLeon and the Qawi who reigned in 85-86 would probably beat him, but they were both faded by 89.
Norris had his first 30 fights as a heavyweight; only a dozen or so of his nearly 70 fights were at cruiser. As a heavy he often weighed over 220 so I was amazed that he made the cruiser limit- he weighed below 190 at times- and it was not something he would have even attempted with same day weigh-in.
