Ken Norton vs Larry Holmes: YOUR scorecard for the fight.

[DarkTerror88]

On my scorecard i had jawbreaker kenny ahead by one round. It was a great fight and I think Holmes is vastly underrated and is a great fighter but i feel than Norton won this one.

What do you guys/girls(you never know) think?

[sonnyboyx2]

it was a very close fight, i had it Norton winning by one round

[Sugarj]

I had it hanging on the last round.............which I scored for Holmes.

Two things to consider, although irrelevant to the scoring are:

1) Holmes was fighting with a bicep injury, I'm pretty sure it was his left arm. Easily his most used arm with that jab of his.

2) In my opinion the rounds which Holmes won were clearer than the rounds that Norton edged.

But amazing fight and terrific performance for both. It was Norton's last great performance.

Kenny was always very difficult for decent orthodox boxers to figure out. His fights with Ali, Young and Holmes are a testiment to this. Punchers were Norton's undoing, Foreman, Shavers and Cooney being his bogeymen!

[boxing boy]

I had it hanging on the last round.............which I scored for Holmes.

Two things to consider, although irrelevant to the scoring are:

1) Holmes was fighting with a bicep injury, I'm pretty sure it was his left arm. Easily his most used arm with that jab of his.

2) In my opinion the rounds which Holmes won were clearer than the rounds that Norton edged.

But amazing fight and terrific performance for both. It was Norton's last great performance.

Kenny was always very difficult for decent orthodox boxers to figure out. His fights with Ali, Young and Holmes are a testiment to this. Punchers were Norton's undoing, Foreman, Shavers and Cooney being his bogeymen!

Exactly....I'm glad you brought up Holmes injury to his left arm before the fight even started.It looked like it was bothering him early in the fight,and then loosened up as the fight went on.

I just watched this fight about a month ago.I scored it a little different then the times i watched and scored the fight before.I scored the fight a draw,and a great fight! Maybe even better than the Ali-Frazier fights.But there names were not as big,so most people do not rank this fight as great as i do.

BTW-Great post.

[DarkTerror88]

Excellent thoughts you guys. I rank Holmes higher thank kenny in terms of ATG-ness but i think that if we saw the kenny that beat Muhammad Ali in the first fight, and holmes without the injury, i see kenny winning that by a slightly more clear margin.

And i didnt know about holems' injury. I'm gonna have to re watch the fight, i thought his jab seemed..."off" early in the fight. Thanks for the info guys.

[Sugarj]

Great posts guys.

Fair point, 1973 Norton would have been better than 1978 Norton. But 1978 Larry without the bicep injury may have been a touch better too.

Still, maybe Norton takes that fight. I always thought Holmes peaked a couple of years later circa 1980-81.

Prime for prime I edge Holmes. But its close again.

[sonnyboyx2]

I had it hanging on the last round.............which I scored for Holmes.

Two things to consider, although irrelevant to the scoring are:

1) Holmes was fighting with a bicep injury, I'm pretty sure it was his left arm. Easily his most used arm with that jab of his.

2) In my opinion the rounds which Holmes won were clearer than the rounds that Norton edged.

But amazing fight and terrific performance for both. It was Norton's last great performance.

Kenny was always very difficult for decent orthodox boxers to figure out. His fights with Ali, Young and Holmes are a testiment to this. Punchers were Norton's undoing, Foreman, Shavers and Cooney being his bogeymen!

Legendary referee Arthur Mercante had a unique way of scoring fights he broke the round down into 3 seperate minutes, Fighter A could boss the first 2 minutes of a round landing 9 or 10 jabs then fighter B wins the last minute of the round landing a 7 punch salvo.. yet the round has to be scored to Fighter A .... The final round of Holmes vs Norton is a great example of Mercante`s method as Norton bosses the first 2 mins 20 sec of the round with Holmes coming on strong in the final 40 seconds and the judges gave Holmes the round and a split-decision victory.... i had Norton winning the final round which gave him the victory.

[Sugarj]

I've never been happy with the way fights are scored either Sonnyboyx and theres plenty of judges on the world scene that show up some shocking verdicts.

That final round was immense, Norton probably did boss the first half or so, but not on too many punches landed. Whereas Larry did look very good late on and had Norton looking very shaky, missing and shipping some nasty blows. I may watch that round again tonight and take any blinkers off, I've got alot of time for that fight.

Close fight regardless. A classic.

[sonnyboyx2]

I've never been happy with the way fights are scored either Sonnyboyx and theres plenty of judges on the world scene that show up some shocking verdicts.

That final round was immense, Norton probably did boss the first half or so, but not on too many punches landed. Whereas Larry did look very good late on and had Norton looking very shaky, missing and shipping some nasty blows. I may watch that round again tonight and take any blinkers off, I've got alot of time for that fight.

Close fight regardless. A classic.

yes it was a classic fight.. who is commentating on your version of the fight?
i have 2 versions with commentary by Howard Cossell and the other with Bob Sheridan i suggest you watch the latter.. hear is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHSTSh-ypcw

[Sugarj]

Nice good quality link there Sonnyboyx, might be better than my DVD and VHS copies, both of which I fear are the Cosell broadcast........but I haven't seen the VHS one for a while! I have heard that final round broadcast before....might have been on 'Champions Forever'.

So, so tight that round! I wouldn't argue either way. I'll have to score the rest of the fight again.......just to check my scores.

Just for fun I asked my wife to score that final round. She is a casual boxing fan but no historian so Norton and Holmes were just names to her.....no bias. Plus the commentary was not too loud, so no influence there either!

She scored it for Norton!

I asked what her reasons were. 'He seemed to throw more punches' was her answer!

The ladies did like Norton though!!!! Ha ha