Norton 3, Young, Shavers were all fights at the end of his career. Take Ali from when he became champ in 1964 to Manila in 1975. How many close fights. One close fight win - Norton 2.
I watched it carefully last week. It was a gift. The Whitaker fight was no gift, but this was. Round 1 consisted of Quartey controlling the round with his jab, landing a nice little hook too, and Oscar flurrying late with some combos to the head and body, some which were landing and some which were caught. Round 2 was a clear Quartey round. DLH landed a nice counter right off the ropes in round 3, the only meaningful punch landed in the first 2:45 of the round, then Quartey landed about 3 or 4 nice left hands in the last 15 seconds of the round. Round 4 was a DLH round. Round 5 was a Quartey round. Round 6 was a Quartey round when both guys went down. Ike controlled the rest of the round after the 2 KDs. Ike won the next 3 rounds as DLH did little. Oscar won round 10. Quartey won round 11. He dictated most of the round's pace with his jab. He wasn't landing much, but he was still doing more than Oscar. Oscar threw a combo in the round with Ike near the ropes, but only one shot went through, and that was grazing. Then there was round 12 when DLH dropped and badly hurt Quartey. The fight was not even hard to score at all, as there were not a lot of punches landing, and for DLH to win, it requires him winning 3 of the first 5 rounds, and giving him the last 3 rounds, since rounds 6-9 were clear Quartey rounds.
:good I agree completely. I had Quartey beating Delahoya the same way you had while I had Delahoya beating Whitaker.
Which is why I think Delahoya is a coward for not fighting Quartey, Pernell or Sturm again. Can't say that about Ali, even though there was no rematch with Foreman. Funny that Oscar can demand a rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez, who he clearly beat the first time but ignores the other three fighters? I had Quartey beating Oscar 115 - 112 and Pernell beating him by one point more. It's easy to miss the head and body shots that Whitaker landed because his hand speed was far superior to Delahoya's, even in decline. Many times I saw Delahoya's head snap left and right by punches as he was coming in to Pernell. If these don't count as scoring blows, what are? Whitaker blocked a lot of Oscar's shots the same way Mayweather did and combubox still gave him credit for landing these punches. I'll say Pernell gave Oscar more of a beating that Mayweather. At the same time though I will say Oscar was robbed against Trinidad. He moved his feet well in that fight and stayed away from Tito's power.
The Sturm fight was a monstrous robbery. One of the worst of all time. I don't think there is one person on the planet who seriously believes DLH won that fight. Sturm was a relatively obscure German fighter and no one seemed to care too much. Calling it a "gift" to DLH doesn't do justice to the blatant robbery.
