Former heavyweight champion Ken Norton dies at 70

Ken Norton fought the greats, but the
decisions he needed to be great never seemed
to go his way.
He busted Muhammad Ali’s jaw to hand him
only his second defeat. But he lost two narrow
decisions to Ali the next two times they’d
meet, including their final 1976 fight at
Yankee Stadium.
And after he lost by just one point to Larry
Holmes in their 1978 heavyweight title fight,
Norton’s career was all but over.
‘’Kenny was a good, good fighter. He beat a
lot of guys,’’ said Ed Schuyler Jr., who covered
many of Norton’s fights for The Associated
Press. ‘’He gave Ali fits because Ali let him
fight coming forward instead of making him
back up.’’
Norton, who died on Wednesday at the age of
70, was forever linked to Ali for their trio of
fights. Ali was beating everyone around him at
the time but he always had trouble with
Norton, even in the two fights he won.
Norton did briefly become the heavyweight
champion, but he didn’t do it in the ring. His
title was given to him after winning an
elimination contest when Leon Spinks vacated
the belt after deciding to fight Ali in a
rematch instead of facing his mandatory
challenger.
In his first defence, he and Holmes waged a
bruising battle that went 15 rounds and could
have gone to either man. It went Holmes’
way, and Norton would fight just five more
times before finally retiring.
While boxing fans still talk about the bruising
battle he waged with Holmes for the title, it
was his first fight with Ali that made the
former Marine a big name and the two fights
that followed that were his real legacy.
Few gave Norton, who possessed a muscular,
sculpted body, much of a chance against Ali in
their first meeting, held at the Sports Arena in
San Diego, where Norton lived. But his
awkward style and close-in pressing tactics
confused Ali, who fought in pain after his jaw
was broken.
‘’Ali tore up his ankle while training and we
were going to call the fight off but didn’t,’’
former Ali business manager Gene Kilroy said.
‘’Ali said it’s not going to be that tough.’’
It was, with Norton breaking Ali’s jaw in the
early rounds and having his way with the
former champion for much of the night. The
loss was even more shocking because Ali had
only lost to Joe Frazier in their 1971
showdown and was campaigning for the title
he would win again the next year against
George Foreman in Zaire.
‘’Norton was unorthodox,’’ Kilroy said.
‘’Instead of jabbing from above like most
fighters he would put his hand down and jab
up at Ali.’’
Kilroy said after the fight Norton visited Ali at
the hospital where he was getting his broken
jaw wired. Ali, he said, told him he was a
great fighter and he never wanted to fight him
again.
Ken Norton Jr., a coach with the Seattle
Seahawks, confirmed his father’s death to the
AP before handing the phone to his wife, too
distraught to talk.
Norton had been in poor health for the last
several years after suffering a series of
strokes, Kilroy said.
‘’He’s been fighting the battle for two years,’’
he said. ‘’I’m sure he’s in heaven now with all
the great fighters. I’d like to hear that
conversation.’’
Norton didn’t have long to celebrate his big
win over Ali. They fought six months later,
and Ali won a split decision.
They met for a third time on Sept. 28, 1976,
at Yankee Stadium and Ali narrowly won to
keep his heavyweight title.
Norton finished with a record of 42-7-1 and
33 knockouts. He would later embark on an
acting career, appearing in several movies,
and was a commentator at fights.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson,
who visited Norton at the veteran’s hospital in
the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, tweeted:
‘’Ken Norton was always nice to me even when
I was just an amateur fighter. He always
treated me like I was somebody. Remarkable
man.’’
Ken Norton Jr. was a linebacker for 13 years
in the NFL, playing for Dallas and San
Francisco, and coaches the position for the
Seahawks. He and his father were estranged
for a time in the 1990s before finally
reconciling.
Norton always gave his father credit for his
career, saying he learned how to train hard by
watching him go for early morning runs when
he was a child.
‘’It’s been noted that my father and I are on
speaking terms and everything’s back together
now,’’ Norton Jr. said in 1995. ‘’It’s part of
what I do. No matter what I do, I can’t get
away from boxing.’’
Norton, born Aug. 9, 1943, in Jacksonville,
Ill., started boxing when he was in the
Marines, and began his pro career after his
release from duty in 1967. He lost only once
in his early fights but had fought few fighters
of any note when he was selected to meet Ali.
At the time, Ali was campaigning to try to win
back the heavyweight crown he lost to Joe
Frazier in 1973.
After that first bout, they faced off two more
times, including the final fight at Yankee
Stadium on a night when police were on strike
and many in the crowd feared for their safety.
The fight went 15 rounds and Ali won a
decision.
Kilroy said Ali and Norton never had any
animosity toward each other and became
good friends over the years. Still, Norton
always thought he had won all three fights.
Norton would come back in 1977 to win an
eliminator against Jimmy Young and was
declared champion by the WBC when Spinks
was stripped of the title.
His fight against Holmes in 1978 at Caesars
Palace was his last big hurrah, with the two
heavyweights going back and forth, trading
huge blows inside a steamy pavilion in the
hotel’s back lot. The fight was still up for
grabs in the 15th round and both fighters
reached inside themselves to deliver one of
the more memorable final rounds in
heavyweight history.
Norton was badly injured in a near fatal car
accident in 1986. He recovered but never
regained his full physical mobility.
‘’The doctors said I would never walk or talk,’’
Norton said at an autograph session in 2011
in Las Vegas, lifting his trademark fedora to
show long surgical scars on his bald head.
Kilroy said Norton was visited at the hospital
by former fighters, including Tyson, Earnie
Shavers and Thomas Hearns.
Norton’s final fight came Nov. 5, 1981, when
he was knocked out in the first round by
Gerry Cooney at Madison Square Garden.
Information on services and other survivors
was not immediately released by the family.