Ambling Alp wrote:
I will tell you what I disagree with:
-Norton had much more reason to be washed up than Quarry. I don't belieive that Quarry peaked in the 1960's.
He was only 29 when he fought Norton. Norton was 35 when he fought Shavers. That is a gigantic difference.
If Norton was younger, he may have started faster and/or been more difficult to hit. He also may have been able to survive Shavers onslaught.
I don't think you can make that comparison with Bobick. Bobick could punch, but he was no Earnie Shavers. If Norton fought Bobick 10 times, the result would probably be similar 9 times.
If Norton would have fought Shavers 10 times a few years earlier, Shavers wouldn't have blown him away 9 times.
Likewise, if Shavers fought Quarry again, the result may have been a lot different. Almost anything could have happened with those two.
Earnie Shavers wasn't exactly the most consistent fighter. Judging someone on what they did against Shavers isn't as reliable as juding someone on how they did against a consistent fighter.
Just watch Norton, especially the first 45 seconds or so before he gets hurt. He is doing nothing. It's obvious that he isn't the same guy who fought Larry Holmes.
I agree that Ali did much better than Norton did against Shavers. That's is just the umpteenth example of Ali's greatness. Ali was better than Norton. To some extent, it's the difference between a great chin (Ali) and good chin (Norton) Against most fighters it wouldn't matter. Against Shavers (especially at the age of 35) it does matter.
My main problem with criticizing Norton for the Shavers fight: I can't think of anyone else who gets criticized for a fight when they are 35. Why Norton gets this criticism makes little sense.
A few of your points I think are very questionable.
-Norton had much more reason to be washed up than Quarry. I don't belieive that Quarry peaked in the 1960's.
He was only 29 when he fought Norton. Norton was 35 when he fought Shavers. That is a gigantic difference.
I think Quarry had
far more reason to be washed up than Norton. You mentioned the punishment that Norton had taken in his career, but it almost pales to what Quarry took. Quarry had had his head and face bashed in more times than I can remember. Off the top of my head, he'd already been stopped
five times before fighting Norton, and in at least three of those he took terrible, terrible poundings. Not to mention other tough battles he had along the way, like his two with Patterson. Without looking at their records, I'd reckon he had more fights in general than Norton too.
It is indeed a huge difference
in years, but years are not the sole determinent for when a fighter ages, and perhaps not even the biggest one.
Just watch Norton, especially the first 45 seconds or so before he gets hurt. He is doing nothing. It's obvious that he isn't the same guy who fought Larry Holmes.
Is it? He was fighting a different style of fighter than Holmes, so it made sense that he would fight a different way. He may not have looked the same way as he did against Holmes, but IMO he looked the same he did against other sluggers/punchers like Quarry, Garcia, or Stander. He started off those fights the same,
not pressing the fight, but jabbing and circling away, and letting the other guys come to him. It just looks to me that when the other guys landed their first punches, Norton reacted like, "Whatever". When Shavers landed, he said, "Oh sh*t!" Since the disparity between Shavers' power and those others' is pretty substantial, I don't believe that kind of disparity in reaction is surprising either.
My main problem with criticizing Norton for the Shavers fight: I can't think of anyone else who gets criticized for a fight when they are 35. Why Norton gets this criticism makes little sense.
Well for starters, it isn't exactly common that a fighter is considered in or near his prime at around the age of 35, but it does happen. I can think of at least several fighters that were considered at the height of their powers in their early or mid 30s: Dick Tiger, Bernard Hopkins, Lennox Lewis, Jose Napoles, Archie Moore, Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Calzaghe, Roy Jones, just off the top of my head.
Tiger was criticized for losing to Joey Giardello at around 34, Lewis was criticized for losing to Rahman at around 35, and Moore was criticized for losing to Leonard Morrow (by first round KO) at around 35/36, to name a few examples. The difference in all those cases is that all of those fighters avenged those losses in very decisive fashion, and were considered to have redeemed themselves by doing that. But none of those fighters were given a free pass because of their age. All were expected to avenge those losses in order to maintain their reputations/legacies.