Oscar Bonavena vs Ken Norton

[blv30]

Could Ken stop Oscar inside of 15 or would Oscar bull Ken over?

[kenmore]

My guess is that Norton would win this fight by a wide margin, and that it would probably go to the scorecards. Bonavena would have his moments, but overall, his strength and power would not quite be enough to bowl Norton over.

Norton would be especially dominant from long range.

At short range -- and against the ropes -- the fight would be more competitive, but even here I see Kenny's superior handspeed, firepower, and combation-punching ability winning the fight on the inside.

As to what kind of damage Bonavena could do if he pinned Norton on the ropes and opened up with both hands, I think not too much. Just look at Norton's expert cross-armed defense and counterpunching while Jerry Quarry had him on the ropes for most of the third round of their 1975 bout.

Oscar could punch, but not like Shavers, Foreman, or even Cooney for that matter. Thus, I think Norton could weather Bonavena's heavy bombs.

Bonevena's durability would probably keep him on his feet until the final bell.

[Dan Hanley]

Norton's jaw would never hold up under a Bonavena barrage. I see the strong as an ox Oscar breaking through Norton's cross arms defense and stopping him around the 8th or 9th round.

Dan

[robertk]

Agreed. Left hook to get in there sooner or later and then kenny would start backing up. And this would be the wrong guy for him to back up against.

I wanted to see this bout transpire, but come to think of it there was a number of guys I wanted to see kenny fight, & it was always a case of him taking on a Zanon or Garcia rematch instead.

[kenmore]

I think Norton-Bonavena was being put together early in 1976, just before Oscar was murdered.

The two also came close to fighting in March, 1975, at MSG. The originally scheduled match of Foreman-Young fell through, with Bonavena brought in to replace Foreman, then Norton brought in to replace Young, and Quarry brought in to replace Bonavena. So we ended up with Norton-Quarry.

I don't Ken would have felt any reason to duck Bonavena.