BoxRec

Who wins..............

Frazier is a better fighter and also styles favour him in this fight. I say Joe

I would say an easy Frazier KO in the 4th.

This one has come up before and I'll stick with what I said before. Frazier wins and wins quick. This could very easily be a first round ko and no way does it go past three. Ken fought three big punchers (Cooney, Shavers, and Foreman) in his career and went in rounds 1, 1, and 2. No way can he hurt Frazier and no way can he get away from him/hold him off.

I'm not sure Frazier himself would be so optimistic predicting this outcome.

Frazier KO 1

Norton regularly sparred with Frazier and apparently held his own, so in this fight I would tend to give less weight to the Norton trait of fainting when in the ring with a big puncher. In perspective Norton was ancient for the Cooney fight, and Cooney is much taller than Norton and a harder one punch left hooker than Frazier. Foreman and Shavers were both tall- as tall as Norton- and both were much harder hitters than Frazier.
Frazier was a busy relentless infighter; one handed for all practical purposes he crowded foes and pummeled them. I don't believe that Nortom would 'freeze' because Frazier really wasn't that type of puncher. In fact I think Norton would see Frazier as made for him.
He-Frazier- would work past the Norton jab early but Norton's best punches were his right uppercut and left hook and he was a solid body puncher, ands superbly conditioned in his own right. His right uppercut would score well and often and prevent Frazier really setting down on his hook. Conversley Norton would use his up and especially down and hurt Frazier to the body- By the 6th or 7th round Frazier would be advancing much more slowly and wouild be getting beat up coming in with jabs and that overhead softball lob that Norton used instead of a real right hand punch. Once close Frazier would be losing the exchanges and he would not see a 10th round
This fight is between two vastly over hyped fighters that have been practically deified as part of the "make Ali great" campaign

tiredoldngrey wrote: This fight is between two vastly over hyped fighters that have been practically deified as part of the "make Ali great" campaign

Yeah, I suppose Ali beating the best of two eras isn't really any sort of accomplishment at all.

Because of his style and defensive posture, I think Norton was particulrly vulnerable to body punches. And Frazier was a relenless and very body puncher. Frazier by KO5.

And I think Norton was a few inches taller than Shavers, who stood at right about 6'.

tiredoldngrey wrote:Norton regularly sparred with Frazier and apparently held his own, so in this fight I would tend to give less weight to the Norton trait of fainting when in the ring with a big puncher. In perspective Norton was ancient for the Cooney fight, and Cooney is much taller than Norton and a harder one punch left hooker than Frazier. Foreman and Shavers were both tall- as tall as Norton- and both were much harder hitters than Frazier.
Frazier was a busy relentless infighter; one handed for all practical purposes he crowded foes and pummeled them. I don't believe that Nortom would 'freeze' because Frazier really wasn't that type of puncher. In fact I think Norton would see Frazier as made for him.
He-Frazier- would work past the Norton jab early but Norton's best punches were his right uppercut and left hook and he was a solid body puncher, ands superbly conditioned in his own right. His right uppercut would score well and often and prevent Frazier really setting down on his hook. Conversley Norton would use his up and especially down and hurt Frazier to the body- By the 6th or 7th round Frazier would be advancing much more slowly and wouild be getting beat up coming in with jabs and that overhead softball lob that Norton used instead of a real right hand punch. Once close Frazier would be losing the exchanges and he would not see a 10th round
This fight is between two vastly over hyped fighters that have been practically deified as part of the "make Ali great" campaign

Norton holding his own in sparring is not the same as holding his own in the ring. It is a controlled environment in sparring, the gloves are bigger, the fighters have headgear, and the fighters are not trying to kill each other (in most cases). In a real life match up, Frazier would roll right over Norton. His cross arm defense was made for Frazier's left hook.

Norton holding his own in sparring is not the same as holding his own in the ring. It is a controlled environment in sparring, the gloves are bigger, the fighters have headgear, and the fighters are not trying to kill each other (in most cases). In a real life match up, Frazier would roll right over Norton. His cross arm defense was made for Frazier's left hook.

Exactley the way I see it.

Norton always had problems with big punchers and fast starters.Gotta go with smokin Joe.