Rewatching Norton vs Quarry

Just rewatched this fight, and perhaps the most notable decline is Quarry's reflexes. Watch this fight and the first round of his bout with Frazier in their first fight. Night and day.

 

Hi there Richard. That would have been a good fight. I still see Ken winning,though,for reasons explained on my earlier post.

 

It gets blown out of proportion. The doctor said he would lose 6-8% effectiveness in the late rounds. Watching the fight his jab was as effective as ever especially given it was a grueling fight. Holmes wasn't often backward in coming forward with "reasons" for poor showings or tough fights but to his credit i don't remember him ever mentioning the bicep post bout.

 

In their prime, they'd have produced a great clash. My money would always be on Norton though.

Jerry could be rough on his sparring partners, and he arguably did get the better of Kenny in sparring, but it's important to note that Norton started boxing very, very late, as opposed to Quarry's run-in-the-family boxing legacy. By 1970, Norton was mostly beating cans and got caught by Garcia. Afterwards he reshaped his career, getting Futch to train him and eventually getting a win over Ali in '73. He improved continuously over the years, and any time period in which Norton was a sparring partner to Quarry likely didn't sport a prime Jawbreaker.

You could generalize that when Quarry was falling out, Norton was rising through the ranks. Hardly a good time for them to meet, except for one being either too shot, or the other too green, or it being a high risk or low reward bout.

 

No one ever mentions the fact that Norton before the first fight against Muhammad Ali needed the help of a Hypnotist, and no excuses here but Ali was a bloated 221 lbs, did not train according to Gene Kilroy, Ali swung Golf clubs. Also giving credit where credit is due, Ken Norton had Eddie Futch in his corner, that sure does help.

 

Futch pretty much devised a strategy that neutralized Ali in FotC and the battle of the broken jaw. He remains one of the best trainers to ever stand on a corner in my book.

According to Futch, Norton dropped the split decision in Ali-Norton II because he let go of early rounds by trying to emulate Frazier instead of sticking to his instructions. It was still a razor close battle and Ali was in a fantastic shape. One if not the best of his 70's career.

 

Holmes was given a shot in the dressing room before the fight. Doc said it would probably last into the 7th or 8th round. After that perhaps the adrenaline of the moment carried him through it.

 

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it but I had read multiple times that he had a bad back and was on medication just to try to train on the short notice.

That, and he was on the backside of his career.

 

Quarry was an experienced world class pro at that time while Norton was quite green, though