Meanwhile Frazier was undefeated with 27-0 record and coming off his biggest career defining UD over Ali just the year before.
With that big win over Ali, Frazier took a low profile in 1972 taking on Terry Daniels and Ron Stander in easy title defenses. Part of the reason for this was to allow Frazier to fully recover from the strain and damage from that hard fight with Ali.
Had Frazier's handlers opted for a more challenging fight by taking on Norton in 1972, I think history would have been drastically altered.
I think Norton was at his strongest and best prime when he took on Ali in 1973 and he was already well prepared to take on the elites of the division as early as 1972.
A fight versus Frazier in 1972 would have resulted in a Norton upset on points or even late round TKO considering that Kenny was hitting his prime while Frazier was still recovering from the rigors and damages of his difficult bout with Ali, and as some experts said was already showing signs of slowing down and decline (Proof of this is the fact that Frazier would only win three of his last six bouts between 1973 and his semi-retirement in 1977, winning over Joe Bugner and old nemeses Jimmy Ellis and Jerry Quarry while losing to Ali by UD and TKO and to George Foreman by KO twice).
The first fight between Ali and Norton in 1973 could have been for the heavyweight championship with Norton already the titleholder.
I always wonder why those two never met in the ring. They are both good punchers. They are both tough but the difference is Joe Frazier is a fast starter and Ken need a few round to warm up. The 1972 Joe Frazier was very aggressive and will test Ken Norton jaw early. It would be a close fight if it go the distance but I am afraid Joe will jump on Ken early and stop him within 3 rounds.
Gotta believe Frazier would have eventually landed that left hook and Norton would have not fared well. Joe would have been the favorite and Kenny the underdog but it would have been a great fight.
I think Frazier would've eventually got to Norton and stopped him.
As we all know, Norton was a cancer for boxers but folded pretty quickly against big punchers.
Frazier wasn't as big of a puncher as Shavers, Foreman, or Cooney...so I think Norton would've made it a competitive fight for seven or eight rounds before Frazier finally put him away.
In 1972 Joe Frasier would of destroyed Ken Norton. He would of hit him with powerful body shots and then took off his head with a big leaping left hook. Frasier by KO in round 5.
