Did Ken Norton ever clean out his division the way Walcott did 1945-1947? Walcott during these years went 8-2 against Ring Magazine top 10 including beat the # 1 2 and 3 rated challengers. DID ken norton ever win his title in the ring the way walcott did? Did Ken Norton ever beat ranked punchers the way Walcott dispatched Tommy gomez, elmer ray, lee q murray, and hatchetman sheppard going a combined 6-1 against them? Actually 1945-1953 he was either a top rated contender or CHAMPION Walcotts career pre 1944 should not even merit discussion. walcott had NO training pre 1944, took fights on last minute notice with no food in his stomach, was malnourished, fought with typoid fever a couple years.. Walcott was basically a sickly father working long days at the docks to support his children and took fights whenever he couldl. The walcott post 1945 with bocchicio and florio, thats the REAL walcott
So let me guess, in h2h matchups you expect him to beat Norton, Witherspoon, Bowe, Ibeabuchi and Tua right. I mean that's how highly you think of the journeyman?
I think walcott would beat all of the above except bowe... bowe would be a very hard fight so I will rule that one out...everyone else walcott beats.
Yeah just like how he beat rex layne right? Or how he lost to joey maxim. Yeah but the knockout artists like tua and witherspoon wouldnt find that glass jaw right. Abe simon put jersey boy out of his misery.
Well, that was marginally more lopsided than I had expected- I was imagining, or at least hoping, that Chagaev would have some more gears to bring to the table than what he had shown in the past. He had looked on the lethargic, one-dimensional and limited side of things in previous outings, but I had reasoned that perhaps he was the sort of fighter who did just enough to win and fought to the level of his opposition. Evidently, this is not the case. He showed nothing new against Wlad, and seemed utterly incapable of adapting his gameplan. Surely he realized he was losing every round of the fight, but he continued with almost exactly the same failed pattern (which was more or less the same one he had used against the likes of Valuev and Ruiz) nevertheless. He obviously wasn't going to be able to beat Wlad with slickness, nor could he outjab him, but he was unwilling to commit to a pressure style- a move which was clearly necessary if he were to have a serious chance at getting himself into this fight. It did look as though he was attempting to play possum at the end of the ninth by laying on the ropes, trying to get Wlad to go for the kill and really commit to some punches, which could potentially have created an opening, but Wlad simply intelligently stood back and continued peppering him from long range, and Chagaev had no answer. I'll now lend less credence to the proposition that Chagaev would stand a serious chance against most of the fighters on this list. He is not particularly fast, he has shown little in the way of punching power against noteworthy opposition, his punches lack zip and snap, he hasn't shown much adaptability, and he has no really special attributes to compensate. He does have a good defense with his tight guard and a consistently well-tucked chin (speaking of which, I am not convinced his lack of prior stoppage losses speaks to a granite jaw quite so much as a tight defense and cautious style- Wlad was barely committing to his shots today, and even the one which put Chagaev down didn't look to be anything close to his strongest), has solid lateral movement, puts punches together fairly well, and doesn't have a lot of glaring weaknesses- essentially the right mixture of attributes to enable him to sneak close decisions off slow, inactive opponents like Valuev and Ruiz, but nothing which can make him a real threat on the highest level. He would not have any enormous advantages in height, reach, power, speed, stamina, or skill on most any of the fighters in question- more or less his only substantial edge would be in weight (aided by the substantial gut he carries even at 225). Most of the '50s fighters listed herein possessed considerably more in the way of talent, energy, variety and genuinely outstanding skills or attributes, which would see them at a considerable advantage over the likes of Chagaev.