Ken Norton vs Rocky Marciano

[Mangoraj]

Personally I believe the man capable of breaking Muhammad Ali’s jaw and arguably beating him twice would be capable of out pointing the Brockton blockbuster

[DrDuke]

Norton indeed could outbox Marciano, as his skillset was superior than Rocky's one. The thing is, Norton had chin issues, while he was far from perfectly elusive. Marciano was way more durable and relentless, he definitely had enough power to ice Ken. I see Norton winning on points in a competetive battle until the later rounds, where Rocky should finally land his best shots and stop Norton.

[HomicideHenry]

Very intriguing match.

Norton always had trouble with big punchers and fast starters like Foreman, Shavers, and Cooney. Trouble is I don't recall Norton really having fought a bob-and-weave swarmer. He refused to fight Frazier, his friend, so it's difficult to gauge how he would have fared.

Charles and Walcott were certainly on par with, or better, than Norton (imho) and Marciano had such superb conditioning that his work rate seemed to only increase the longer fights went on ranging between 80-120 punches per round.

Norton has a chance, indeed, to pull off a decision but he seemed to be good/great against boxers who didn't really press the issue offensively--- and Marciano was all offense with a majorly underrated ability to get inside without getting caught with too many punches.

I'm going to say Marciano either by unanimous decision (8-5-2, 9-5-1, 9-6-0 type scores) or he catches Norton between rounds 8 through 11, because Marciano had a tendency to really ramp up his punches if he was down on the scores and virtually every time he did that he ended up catching somebody.

A lot of heavyweights are good for four or five rounds and then take off four or five, and that is a major mistake to make again somebody like Rocky Marciano who started off fast and only continued to go faster as time went on.

If Norton was to win he would have to bust Marciano up early and try to pick him off with a jab until the referee could stop the fight, but even Muhammad Ali was amazed at how difficult it was to land a job on the 45+ year old Marciano in 1969 so I think the task is a hard one for Ken Norton.

[Ambling Alp II]

Editor's notes - Norton didn't refuse to fight Frazier. Ali never fought Marciano, had an exhibition, or sparred with Marciano.

[HomicideHenry]

Editor's notes - Norton didn't refuse to fight Frazier. Ali never fought Marciano, had an exhibition, or sparred with Marciano.

Frazier and Norton refuse to fight each other because they were best friends. That is a historical fact.

No dip Sherlock. But in those two weeks of filming Marciano left quite an impression on Muhammad Ali. Even years later after the fact Ali said that Marciano was greater than Joe Frazier. All on the basis of the 45-year-old Marciano who hadn't fought in 14 or 15 years.

[Ambling Alp II]

They didn't want to fight each because they were friends. They would have if Ali and Foreman would not have been around. You made it sound like Norton was scared of him.

Ali and Marciano were filming a video. It was not meant to be a competitive contest. Ali was way out of shape and Marciano had been retired for a long time. Ali did think highly of Marciano, because he had respect for great fighters who came before him. As for being better than Frazier, I never heard him say it. You say a lot of things that aren't true, so I don't l know. He didn't like Frazier so perhaps that is why he said it.

[HomicideHenry]

"He was better than Joe Frazier let's put it that way. I truly think he was better than Joe Frazier. You've seen what Joe Frazier did to me... It may have been even, he may have won, it's hard, it's up to the imagination."

I find it funny that you never heard him say this when this interview with Howard Cosell is one of the most remembered interviews that he ever did comparing himself to heavyweight champions of the past on ABC Wide World of Sports.

[Ambling Alp II]

No, I didn't remember that interview with Cosell. He had literally dozens of interviews with Cosell (and many more with other people.)
Of course we all remember Ali saying he was the greatest. But he had a lot of respect for great fighters that came before him. Said a lot good things about Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. In lower weight classes, Ray Robinson was his idol and he thought highly of Luis Rodriguez, who was a little older than him.

He once ranked his top 10 heavyweights of all time. ( I think this was in the early 1980s.)
He had Jack Johnson number one. He had Louis number two. He had himself number three.

Of course later he again claimed he was the greatest.

[zuru]

Marciano marches forward throwing those short hard punches and wears Norton down to a 10th Rd ko

[scorpio83]

Either Marciano would land great heavy punches while Norton would fight for survival and Marciano take a decision or Marciano would KO Norton in 11 rounds.

[AngryGoon38]

Rocky would likely win. Ko, or Tko, between rounds 8-10.
Rocky could've fought at a heavier weight. He could've carried an extra 10 lbs without any major issues.
Rocky weighed in at 188 lbs in his last pro bout vs Moore.
Based on the opponents that Rocky fought,his extra cardio based training to enable weighing in the 180's was ideal.
It gave him the speed and endurance that he needed against the opponents that he was facing during that era.

I'm a bit surprised that Rocky didn't let himself/train himself to be Bigger against the 218 lb Joe Louis.
I guess that he figured that weighing 184 was better overall than weighing in at something like 194..?
But anyway, in a hypothetical scenario vs Norton,if I were Rocky's trainer or manager, I'd want him to weigh somewhere between 194-198 vs Norton.

He definitely could've carried the extra weight. Half that extra weight would be muscle and the other half would be fat,for reserve energy. A lil bit of fat Will Provide Extra Energy. I'd have him cut the cardio by around 25% in place of extra strength and power based training. Roy Jones Jr weighed 193 vs Ruiz and Mike Spinks weighed 191 vs Holmes in they're first bout,if I remember correctly.