The fight for Ali's vacant title featuring a similar match-up to Ali vs. Frazier. Holmes had one of the best stiff jabs in the business and Norton played the role of a powerful, yet less capable, Joe Frazier. A great fight that went wire to wire and represented pretty much the end of Ken Norton and the beginning of the reign of Larry Holmes. Holmes suffered from both not being Ali and from the fact that the division would never be as it was when it featured Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Quarry, Lyle, Norton, Ellis, and so many others. Holmes took on all comers though and beat every one convincingly until he popped off about Marciano on the road to his record tying win and the fight gods taught him a lesson in humility.

This was a pretty good fight for heavy's-my least favorite division aside from there being a possibility of a little man beating a big man.In this fight,Norton and Holmes measured up physically. I remember this fight being judged close-and maybe its because the judges didn't like Holmes better than I do;I thought Holmes won comfortably.In any case,Holmes is one fighter I seriously dislike-for his public comment that Marciano couldn't carry his jock strap after his loss to Michael Spinks-and for turning his public training for the Leon Spinks fight in Detroit into a police state-making Gay jokes and obnoxious 'I'm the man' type comments,while a security goon squad escorted anyone in the crowd making too much noise out of Joe Louis arena.