Ken Norton famously used a cross-arm guard, sometimes also called a "cross guard" or "cross-armed defense." He used the cross-arm guard because it was an effective way to neutralize his opponents' offense, particularly the jab, and to pressure them. It allowed him to smother punches, set up counters, and create mental pressure on opponents, disrupting their rhythm and confidence. The guard was particularly effective in infighting and was a key part of his strategy in his famous upset victory over Muhammad Ali. While Norton wasn't the only fighter who fought with this style, he was one of the most famous and one of the most effective. The cross-arm guard can be an effective style, but it requires a high level of skill and awareness. It can also leave a fighter open to the body, and in Norton's case it left him vulnerable to punchers who could trap him and cut off angles with uppercuts.
Gosh, Norton is one of my favorite fighters to watch, if you didn't have murderous punching power like Foreman and Shavers, he was a handful. Norton is a legend, he was in some real knockdown-dragouts, his fight in 1975 with Jerry Quarry at MSG was a great slugfest. Quarry decided to go for broke early in the fight and take Norton out, he rocked Norton a few times, but Quarry wasn't in the best shape of his career and he gassed out. Norton, always in phenomenal shape, bides his time and when he realizes that Quarry is spent he opens up on him with combo after combo, Quarry ended up with two nasty cuts and both fighters were stained in Quarry's blood, great little war. Here are the highlights.
Great shots from the Norton-Quarry fight. You know it's interesting, Jerry Quarry had actually knocked Norton out one time at a sparring session at The Main Street Gym, but he wasn't in good shape at MSG that night and Norton got him. Jerry Quarry, God bless him, there was no quit in the guy, he was all heart and guts, he did not want the referee to stop that fight. But Ken Norton was a great fighter, you had to be on top of your game to beat him.
Another great Norton fight was against Larry Holmes in 1978, fight of the decade candidate right there. Ken Norton had been awarded the WBC heavyweight title after Leon Spinks was stripped of it for refusing to face him, I have to give credit to Spinks, he didn't face Norton because he believed Ali deserved a rematch which is honorable as hell. At the time of this fight, Larry Holmes was making a name for himself and would go on to become one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history and have one of the most dominant title reigns ever. This is an article written about Norton right before the Holmes fight.
THE BUGLE CALL CHAMPION
Ken Norton began boxing as a Marine because he hated to get up for reveille. This week he defends his title
If a navigator were to plot the career course of Kenneth Howard Norton, the chart would show a seemingly aimless path of zigzags and curves. This is because for most of the journey Norton wanted to be something other than a fighter. Yet here he is, a man with a piece of the world heavyweight championship, and this Friday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he defends his WBC title for the first time, facing undefeated and largely unknown Larry Holmes. Norton sees the fight as a screenplay.
"There is a movie script in here somewhere," he was saying at his secluded and serene training base, the unserenely named Massacre Canyon Inn at Gilman Hot Springs, Calif. "It was written a long time ago. The names of the players: Norton and Holmes. The supporting cast. The action, every punch, every small drama. And, at the end, the name of the winner. By a knockout. Or a decision. The end is preordained. It is our destiny. Mine and Larry's.
"I have to believe now that fighting was my destiny," says the 32-year-old ex-Marine. "What else could you call it? Nothing was planned. I never intended to be a fighter. In the Corps I only started boxing because I was unhappy with the football team and I was bored with getting up for reveille every day. As a pro I was just using boxing as a means to meet the right people. I hoped they would open the right doors for me. Boxing wasn't an end, it was a means to an end. When they pay you only $300 for a 10-rounder—and it is your 30th fight and you are pushing 29 and raising a young son by yourself—well, you don't sit around dreaming about being a champion. Not if you are realistic. And hungry. What you think about is finding a good job and starting a new career."
Norton had just showered after a particularly hard workout, and now, dressed in slacks and a T shirt, he sprawled across the king-sized bed in his motel room. From the window he could see his eggshell white Cartier-edition Lincoln Mark IV Continental parked under a nearby copse of dogwood trees. At his ranch house in the exclusive La Dera Heights section of Los Angeles there is a buckskin-colored customized Sting Ray, a customized van, a white Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce and a 1978 Ford station wagon. And he has on order a $50,000 Clenet; only 300 will be made.
Norton is a millionaire, perhaps more than once. Certainly after the Holmes fight he won't be any poorer. His purse for this first title defense will be $2.7 million. For his last previous fight, the 15-round title-elimination win over Jimmy Young—which led to Norton's being named champion by the WBC—he earned $1.5 million. He collected small fortunes for his starring roles in the movies Mandingo and Drum. "Kenny will never need for anything," says Bob Biron, his manager, friend and financial overseer. "All his money is tied up in widows' and orphans' funds. It's safe."
But Norton will not permit himself to forget the time, not many years ago, when he had pressing need for so simple a thing as half a gallon of milk for his son Kenny Jr.
Looking out the window at his Lincoln, Norton became reflective. He thought back to Dec. 13, 1972, the night he fought Charlie Reno 10 tough rounds before 700 people in San Diego. He was paid $300. His professional record was 29-1. "Those were the desperate years. Life was a monster," Norton said. "Once I even planned on robbing a liquor store. I mean, I was going to walk in, hit the dude in the mouth and rip him off. That's how big a monster my life was then. But I could never rob anyone. And for that I can only thank God for the way I was brought up."
Ken Norton was brought up in Jacksonville, Ill., a farming community of 20,000 people near Springfield in the central part of the state. He was born there on Aug. 9, 1945, the only child of middle-income parents: John, a small man, 5'6" but feisty, an engineer in the fire department, and Ruth, a hospital therapist. He admits that they spoiled him badly.
Norton was a gifted athlete early on. He first won public notice in the second grade when he won five events at a Junior Olympic meet. From that point he just became better, mostly without trying. "Sometimes I think it all came too easily for me," he says. "When you are always bigger and faster and stronger than everyone else, there is never anyone to push you. You never really find out how good you can become."
By the time he was a freshman entering Jacksonville High, where he became a hometown legend in football, basketball and track, Norton had grown to 5'11" and 156 pounds. When he was graduated in 1961, he was 6'3" and 198. And by that time he had a physique of the kind cast in bronze and pedestaled in an art museum.
Al Rosenberger, who coached Norton in three sports at Jacksonville, says, "When Ken left us he was all man. His growth in four years was tremendous, but it never seemed to bother him. He grew, but his speed and skill, his agility and his talent, grew with him. His only problem was that he had so much natural ability he was totally unpredictable."
When properly motivated, then as fm now, Norton could be spectacular. In one track meet he entered eight events on a whim. He won five, finished second in three. As a senior, he amassed 288 points in a single track season, a record that still stands and most likely will never be topped. The following year state athletic officials passed a rule—the Norton Law—limiting an athlete to four events in one meet.
As a football and track star, Norton was sought by 86 colleges, among them Miami, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri. But he turned down the big-time football powers and went to Northeast Missouri State College, which offered the security of being not very far from home.
Candid as always, Norton admits, "All my life I was involved in sports and in chasing the ladies. I never had to study hard to make good grades. Everything I did was easy. The result was that I was a little spoiled brat, only 17, and an only child who had always been protected, always got what he wanted. I chose a college close to home because...I don't know if it was a lack of confidence or what. I just didn't want to venture that far from home."
Still, Norton's freshman football season at college was less than a success, mostly because he tried to play despite a collarbone broken during a fistfight two weeks before the season opened. The bone was broken when the man he fought ran into him with a car. The only other fight he can remember having as a youngster took place when, at the age of 14 and standing 5'11", he challenged his diminutive father.
"Are you sure?" said John Norton.
"Yes, sir," said Ken.
"Then put up your hands."
As Norton's hands started to come up, his father hit him in the mouth. End of fight.
In his second year at Northeast Missouri, Norton decided college was not for him, and one day, without a word to anyone, he enlisted in the Marines.
"I was afraid of becoming a teacher and going home and getting stuck there," he says. "I could see nothing but doing nothing day after day. I never had any racial problems at home, because I was a good athlete. But there was a lot of prejudice in the town, and for blacks there was no chance of advancement. The best thing a black could become in that town was a policeman."
Norton saw the Marine Corps as a challenge. He knew if he made it through, he'd come out a better man. Never before had he been made to accept responsibility, not even for himself. It was a choice he has never regretted. "The Corps taught me who I was and what color I was. I didn't know I was black. But in the Corps everything is on a one-on-one basis, and I found out what color I was, and it made me proud to be black. For that, I am grateful to the Corps."
Trained to be a radioman, Norton was assigned to Camp Lejeune, and soon he was a left halfback on the football team. There was another left halfback—a white officer. Norton didn't play much. Discouraged, he quit the squad, and at the urging of a friend he went out for the boxing team.
Until that moment he had only watched a few fights on television with his father. Now he discovered he liked the sport; at the same time—as an otherwise accomplished athlete—he was embarrassed by his incompetence. Not until everyone else had left the gym would he jump rope or shadowbox. He was too self-conscious to train in front of others. It was several steps down from his accustomed star status.
The only real boxing coach he ever had, Pappy Dawson, was killed in a bus accident two weeks after Norton joined the team. After that Norton learned by watching others. He would show up early at tournaments and watch every bout. In his first year he won 10 of 11 fights, mostly on muscle. He became a three-time All-Marine champion and in 1967 won the Pan-American Trials. Then he was told they were taking another heavyweight to the Games. They told Norton his style wasn't "international" enough. He never fought as an amateur again.
When he left the Marines, Norton was approached by Art Rivkin, a San Diego Coca-Cola distributor who had refereed several of his service fights. Rivkin wanted him to turn pro. He said he could put together a group of four businessmen who would pay him $100 a week plus a share of his purses.
Norton had never considered fighting as a professional, but he feared his only other prospect was a return to Jacksonville. He had been married while in the Marines, but that had gone sour and he was left alone with an infant son. A boxing career, he decided, would give him the opportunity to meet a variety of people, to knock on a few doors, and it would give him time to discover what he really wanted to do with his life. Rivkin, Biron, Lloyd Schunemann and A. B. Polansky became his backers.
"The picture Art painted for me was so vivid I could just visualize all the money I'd be raking in," Norton says. "What I made was zilch. What my son and I lived on was that $100 a week. For one hell of a long time."
Although his backers lived in San Diego, it was decided that Norton would live and train in Los Angeles. Sparring partners were scarce in San Diego. Eddie Futch, who lived in L.A., became Norton's trainer and, for the moment, his manager of record.
In his pro debut on Nov. 14, 1967, Norton knocked out Grady Brazell in five rounds. He won his first 16 fights, all by knockout. Then on July 2, 1972 Norton was knocked out by Jose Luis Garcia, whom he later destroyed in five rounds. That loss to Garcia—for which Norton blames overconfidence—was only a temporary setback; he won his next 13 fights, eight of them inside the limit. His record was now 30-1. His bank balance was zero.
At one point during the bleak years Norton called home. "Dad, can you send me some money?" he asked. "I can't make it here. I want to come home."
"No," said John Norton. "Ken, if you quit now, the next hard thing that comes along you'll quit that, too. No, you stick with it. You've got to finish something. Finish this."
With a rueful smile, Norton says that if his father had sent him the money he'd now be back in Jacksonville. And, most likely, a policeman.
"I was desperate," he says. "There was never enough of anything—money, food, clothing. I'd leave Kenny with some people while I trained, and then I'd purposely stay late. I knew if I didn't come home they'd feed him. A lot of people were awfully good to Kenny and me during those years. The people must have known what I was doing, but they never said a word. It was during those times that I actually considered robbing a liquor store. Or a supermarket. When a man is desperate enough, when he has a family to feed and no money, I guess he'll consider anything."
If Norton never considered becoming heavyweight champion, Bob Biron, now 65, gave even less thought to becoming a fight manager. He has been a vice-president of Northrup Aircraft, of TWA, of General Dynamics and vice-chancellor of the University of California at San Diego. At present he is a major Southern California real-estate developer and the owner of the La Jolla Village Inn in San Diego. "Kenny is the only fighter I've ever had, and he's the only one I ever will have," says Biron, who, as a law student, was on the boxing team at the University of Minnesota. "I'm still amazed that I ever got involved in boxing at all.
"At first I was content just to be one of the backers. Futch was doing a good job. In the beginning he handpicked the opponents, getting all the old trial horses for Kenny to bang away on. But then, as his career progressed, it was apparent Ken needed my experience as a negotiator. At one point in Kenny's career, all the money was going to the opponents, to the James J. Woodys and the Jack O'Hallorans. We needed them, and it cost money to bring them from the East. To get opponents like that, all we could get from the promoter was a percentage of what was left over. And a lot of times that was nothing. A lot of times we'd dip into our own pockets and give Kenny $300 or $400 as a token."
But on March 31, 1973, Norton finally got the big break. Shopping for a soft touch, Muhammad Ali's people offered him $50,000 to fight the then ex-champion for (and here they laughed) 12 rounds. Norton told them that for $50,000 he'd fight the Russian army.
A few weeks before the fight Biron received a telephone call from Bob Arum, the promoter. "Hey," Arum said, "can your guy last more than two rounds? If not, with the fight on ABC, we are going to look awful silly."
Biron told Arum not to worry about it.
Howard Cosell, who did the fight telecast, called it the worst mismatch in boxing's history, a disgrace. That was before the fight. Later, after Norton had broken Ali's jaw on his way to an easy upset victory by decision, Cosell made it a point to apologize.
Six months later—and this time for $750,000 on closed-circuit TV—Norton fought Ali again. This time the judges gave Ali the victory, by a split decision. From those two fights, Norton was catapulted into a title shot in March 1974 against George Foreman in Caracas, but Foreman stopped him in the second round.
The only thing Norton will say about it is, "No excuse. That night George was the better fighter."
What Norton refuses to discuss are the threats made against his life before the fight. He spent the last week in Caracas surrounded by armed guards, even while he slept. And Foreman, for one reason or another, was threatening to call off the fight right up to the final moment.
"Everywhere Ken went he was surrounded by people with machine guns," Biron says. "Until two hours before the fight we didn't know if it was on or off. At that point Kenny was still in his hotel room. I called and he was rushed to the arena. By this time he had come apart mentally. His eyes were glazed. I doubt if he knew his own name. All that confusion, all that uproar had disturbed him greatly. I never should have let him go on."
Just before the Foreman fight, Futch had quit and moved to Philadelphia to train Joe Frazier, who once had paid Norton $400 a week to be his sparring partner. Norton's new trainer was Bill Slayton, a 56-year-old former linebacker in the old Pacific Coast Conference who drove a truck by day and trained young fighters by night. Slayton's major credits were that he had trained Jerry Quarry for his first four pro fights, and he had taken Adolph Pruitt, a good welterweight, to three title bouts.
Slayton is a powerful man with a gentle nature and a delightful low-key sense of humor. He was the perfect choice to train the sometimes moody Norton. If Futch developed Norton's talents, Slayton honed them to a fine edge.
"At first Kenny was afraid I was going to try and change his style," says Slayton. "I told him I wasn't there to change things, just improve on them. After a few weeks I noticed his little idiosyncrasies and I adjusted to them. You know, he's like a little kid sometimes. I'm an Aries, and I'm stubborn, but I'll learn. He's a Leo, and you know about them—they aren't going any way but their own. We have our little spats, but nothing serious. He'll pout for a couple of hours and then he'll get over it. It's important that I get along with him, not him with me. He's the one who should be comfortable. And once you learn his ways, he's a very beautiful guy."
What Slayton did for Norton mostly was shorten his punches, adding accuracy while taking away none of the sting. Norton had been something of a free swinger, his powerful punches delivered in long loops, and when he missed, he missed badly. He is a pressing fighter, always moving forward, crouched and weaving, his great arms folded across his body in a defense favored by Archie Moore. His jab flicks up and out, the gloves picking off punches almost casually.
Norton's best punch is a hook to the body, and his right uppercut, an unusual weapon, is devastating. But in spite of his knockout record—32 in 44 fights—he does not have that one big punch, like, say, a Louis or a Frazier. He punishes with bursts, each blow effective but not a destroyer in itself.
"That's what I have to keep telling him," Slayton says. "After he knocked out Duane Bobick in one round, he came out thinking he was a big puncher. Well, he isn't. If I let him think that, he'll get wild again, and then, oh, Lord, we'll have problems."
Since his loss to Foreman, Norton has had 11 fights, including the controversial loss to Ali in their third match in 1976. Only three other fights, the first of them a knockout of Quarry in the fifth round, were of any significance. It was after the Quarry fight, his 37th as a professional and after he had already fought twice for the title, that Norton finally decided he was going to make boxing his career. At last, he stopped looking for other employment. "That's when I got to thinking, 'Hey, these chumps aren't any better than me,' " he says. "Then I could see that with just a little more work, with a little more effort, I could make it. I had made the movie Mandingo after the Foreman fight, and then I came back and watched the Quarry-Frazier fight films.
"I really got motivated. Quarry didn't show me that much. I had worked with Frazier, and I felt I was on the same level with Joe, and I was still improving. I had started to fight late in my life. Each fight had been a learning experience. I was still learning. That's when I started thinking world champion, and not to just use boxing as a stepping-stone to something else. Now I was motivated into going for the title for the first time in my career. Quarry was just the first step in that direction."
Step 2 was the one-round knockout of Bobick. Step 3 was the 15-round decision over Young. Then, a few months ago, when new heavyweight champion Leon Spinks backed out of a promised fight with Norton in favor of a return match with Ali, the WBC gave Norton its version of the world championship and told him to defend it first against Holmes. That's what he will be doing Friday night.
"I guess it all goes back to what my father told me," says Norton. "A man should never give up on himself. I have a saying now: what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. In life you have to keep pounding away. Everyone has ups and downs, but you really show what you are made of when you bounce back from defeat. You may slip and fall once in a while, but if you get up and keep walking you'll get to where you want to go."
He doubles up a size 13 fist, and he laughs, breaking the somber mood. "And now," he says, "let me show you what destiny has in store for that bigmouthed Larry Holmes."
The Norton-Holmes fight is why we love this sport, as a boxing fan, you just couldn't as for more, those two men gave us a gift that night that will forever be cherished.
Larry Holmes-Ken Norton Round 15: The Greatest In World Heavyweight Title Fight History?
By James Slater
06/09/2023 - Some dates, some fight dates, they stick in your mind. June 9th is one such date. Why? Because it just might have been that on this date, back in 1978, the world witnessed, A: one of the greatest heavyweight title fights of all-time. B: the single greatest round in all of heavyweight title fighting. And C: the crowning of one of the Top 3 or so finest heavyweight champions in the history of the division. It was on this day 45 years ago, when Larry Holmes and Ken Norton met in Las Vegas, the WBC heavyweight title on the line. Norton, who had been crowned courtesy of his win over Jimmy Young, this victory earning Norton a shot at the WBC belt Muhammad Ali would lose in a stunning upset to Leon Spinks. Spinks declined a fight with Norton, preferring the more lucrative return with “The Greatest.” So, Norton was handed the belt that had been stripped from “Neon Leon.” And now, against the unbeaten Holmes, Norton was made to fight tooth and nail in an effort at keeping it. So much has been written about this great fight over the years, with plenty of people saying Homes-Norton was the last great 15 round heavyweight battle. And of course, plenty of experts, fans, historians, fellow fighters continue to marvel over that 15th and final round. Going into the Holmes-Norton fight, there were no great expectations of a classic that would be remembered for many years, indeed decades. But, with the hype level pretty low, what Holmes and Norton gave us was a fight that raised the bar as far as how magnificent a heavyweight prize fight really could be. You may pick other heavyweight battles over Holmes WS15 Norton as far as your favourite war, with plenty of fans never changing their opinion that Ali-Frazier III is THE heavyweight epic all others should be judged against. Or maybe you like the utterly torrid, almost impossible to keep up with Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo slugfest. Maybe you list another heavyweight showdown as your all-time fave. But nobody, as in absolutely nobody, who has ever seen Holmes-Norton will ever have it be said that the fight is not deserving of a place in the Top 10 heavyweight honours list. And it is in large part due to that punishing, back and forth, unrelenting final round. Both men were literally fighting for the win, for the title in those final three minutes. The fight was this close on the cards, with the three judges having the fight even after 14. Holmes knew what he had to do. Norton knew what his mission was. Win that last round! And so, after both well-conditioned, savagely determined and hungry heavyweights had given oh, so much over the course of those 14 rounds – 42 minutes of red-hot warfare – they each dipped into an unseen reservoir of heart, guts, stamina and more heart as they took each other on a three-minute journey through hell. Norton won the first half of the most important round of his entire ring career. Holmes won the second half of the round that, had he lost it, he would never have been given another chance to rule the world. Norton cracked some hefty right hands into Holmes’ skull, Larry’s gum-shield being sent flying at one point. But Holmes, who had entered the fight with a handicap in the form of a torn muscle in his left arm, his jabbing arm, came back to visibly stagger Norton, Larry perhaps almost scoring a knockdown. It was a heck of a round, so fast-paced, with the two men showing the kind of activity levels that would have been far more at home in a much earlier round. Norton had landed more punches; Holmes had scored with bigger shots. Holmes had done it. Just. The scores were 143-142, 143-142 for Holmes, 143-142 for Norton. Holmes celebrated by jumping into the swimming pool at Caesars Palace. Norton had fought his last great fight, his greatest fight. Holmes would rule for over seven years. Never again did he find a dance partner who was capable of rumbling with him in as special, as treasured a round as that 15th round of otherworldliness he went through with Norton.
Norton-Ali 1 is the fight that earned Norton the nickname "The Jawbreaker" and is undoubtedly Norton's biggest triumph. Only a handful of fighters were able to hand "The Greatest" a loss, and Ken Norton can make that claim. Norton and Ali went to war three times and each fight was highly contested. Norton gave Ali hell, styles make fights and Ali struggled with Norton's style, Ali himself said that he never could figure Norton out.
The Fight City
March 31, 1973: Ali vs Norton I
By: Jamie Rebner
Few deny that Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all-time, perhaps even “The Greatest,” and a major part of the evidence for that claim is the fact that during his prime, only two men defeated him, both terrific fighters in their own right. One was Joe Frazier, his arch-rival, the man who sent Ali to hell and back in both their first great battle in 1971, and again in the monumental “Thrilla in Manila.” But if Ali was the Superman of the heavyweight division in the 1970’s, the other boxer who could rightfully claim to be his kryptonite was of course, Ken Norton.
A young Norton (center) with his trainer Eddie Futch (left) and Joe Frazier.
Norton’s ability to give Ali fits in all three of their clashes is evidence of the truth behind one of boxing’s most overused clichés, the famous saying that “styles make fights.” But the simple fact is some boxers simply have a style which causes all kinds of problems for a pugilist who is otherwise superior. For example, no one in their right mind would argue that Iran Barkley deserves to be regarded as a greater fighter than Thomas Hearns, but the record shows that “The Blade” beat “The Hitman” twice; Barkley just had Hearns’ number and that cannot be denied.
In the same way, Norton’s name is hardly uttered in any serious debate about the greatest heavyweights of all-time, and yet he not only gave Ali serious difficulties, but came very close to winning all three of their meetings.
Ali’s long struggle with Ken Norton, one lasting thirty-nine tough, punishing rounds, began in Norton’s hometown of San Diego, California. Norton was a relative unknown and a huge underdog, but from the opening bell his jerky movement, tricky defense and effective left jab gave the former champion pause. The fact Ali was in for a much tougher fight than anyone anticipated was clear as early as the second round, a stanza which saw Norton score with several looping left hooks, as well as some stiff jabs and lead right hands. Norton out-landed Ali 34 to 12 in that round, while connecting at a much higher percentage (63%) than the Louisville native (26%).
Ali reversed the tide in round three, circling the ring on his toes, flicking out his jab, and showing the skills that made him so successful. His movement flummoxed Norton, who had difficulty cutting off the ring. This proved to be a pattern of the fight; when Ali used his stick-and-move tactics he was effective, but when he elected to stand and trade, he paid a high price.
Norton kept Ali on the defensive for much of the fight.
At the start of round six, ringside commentator Howard Cosell summarized the match to that point: “Either Kenny Norton is a much smarter, much better fighter than anybody thought, or Muhammad Ali has gone back a lot more than one could have reasonably believed.” But in retrospect it was unfair to Norton to say his success was due to Ali’s apparent lethargy or supposed decline. Simply put, Norton deserved tremendous credit for getting into peak condition, boxing with great poise and discipline, and executing Eddie Futch’s game-plan to perfection.
Ali managed a resurgence in round eight as he got on his bicycle again and stayed one step ahead of the pursuing Norton. Despite not landing damaging blows, his savvy ring skills were evident as he took control of the pace and prevented Norton from cornering him. But the ex-champion’s success proved fleeting as Norton had one of his best rounds in the ninth, snapping Ali’s head back with a hard left jab while blocking or slipping the lead left of “The Louisville Lip.” Norton was also able to pin his opponent to the ropes and drive home some vicious body blows, going on to out-land Ali 30 to 9 in this stanza.
By round 12 it was clear to anyone watching with attention that a massive upset was about to happen, that Muhammad needed a stoppage to win. But despite his points lead, Norton closed the show with the same aggression and fearlessness he had demonstrated throughout the contest. In the final round he forced the fight and pursued Ali to the ropes where he struck to the body with heavy punches, and with a minute left, he landed with authority a left hook-right hand combination. Norton put an exclamation point on the fight, outworking and outpunching the former champion, in complete command at the final bell.
Despite this, hearing the official decision go to the underdog was still a shock for sports fans everywhere, though the punch stats clearly supported the judges’ verdict, with Norton landing 233 total punches to Ali’s meager 171. It was a huge upset and a result that showed that no matter how brilliant a boxer may be, there is always someone, somewhere, with the style and strategy to beat the unbeatable. There was also the fact that Ali was by all accounts in less than prime condition, while Norton had whipped himself into the best shape of his life. And he followed perfectly the plan set out by his prolific trainer, Eddie Futch, the man who was also the strategic mastermind behind Ali’s loss to Frazier.
Norton celebrates the judges’ decision.
In a memorable moment after the fight, Cosell, who had given Norton no chance to win, told him in the post-fight interview, “Kenny, you made me look silly.” “That’s okay, Howard,” replied Norton. “You always look silly.”
Following the match it was revealed that Norton had broken Ali’s jaw. When exactly the injury occurred is impossible to know for certain, though Ali and his corner always insisted it happened in the second round. If true, the feat of competing for ten rounds with such an injury against a pugilist as strong and powerful as Ken Norton has to rank as one of the greatest displays of courage in the history of boxing. However, Norton’s fervent opinion was that he broke Ali’s mandible in the final round.
Don King offers support as Ali holds an ice pack to his injured jaw.
If the first Ali vs Norton match proves the truth of the old “styles make fights” adage, it also demonstrated how one opportunity can transform a person’s life. Prior to his battle with Ali, Norton was a single father who could barely make ends meet and no doubt his impressive performance was a product of being supremely motivated. Before the fight he was an unknown, a contender, one of many; after the fight, he joined the elite of the division and became a worthy challenger for heavyweight champion George Foreman. As Norton himself put it years later: “The first Ali fight gave me a chance to give my son more food, better clothes. A fight with Ali gave me a chance at life, period.”
It's fascinating, the X-Ray of Muhammad Ali's broken jaw from the first Norton fight actually sold for $1,500 at auction back in 2015. You can see a nasty break in the jaw. One thing about Ken Norton, he was built like a Roman God, he could punch.
Muhammad Ali
My Broken Jaw X-Ray
... Rakes In Big Money!
By TMZ Staff
Published October 25, 2015 12:45
Updated May 13, 2019 2:11 PM
In the market for an authentic X-ray of Muhammad Ali's broken jaw??? Well, too bad ... 'cause it just sold at one of the coolest charity auctions we've ever seen.
It's a pretty cool piece of memorabilia -- taken right after Ken Norton busted his face during their big fight in 1973 ... a fight Ali actually lost.
Ali signed the X-ray, "To Carol & Russ From Muhammad Ali, 1973" ... and it ended up in the private collection of "Simpsons" creator Sam Simon, a HUUUUGE boxing fan.
Simon's massive collection was auctioned off to raise money for his charity organization -- along with a TON of other cool stuff -- with the X-ray raking in a cool $1,500! No word on the I.D. of the buyer.
All of the proceeds from the auction -- which raised more than $250k -- supports both animal welfare programs and poverty alleviation and disaster relief organizations.
The broken jaw is a mythical moment in boxing history, it's a fascinating story. The exact round Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw is disputed, Ali and his corner insisted it happened in the second round, while Norton's camp believed it was the 12th and final round.
Muhammad Ali's Jaw Broke By Ken Norton's Fist.
Perhaps the only person at the time that knew Muhammad Ali's jaw was broken during the former champion's match with Ken Norton on March 1, 1973 was Muhammad Ali himself.
Watching recordings of the fight, it’s possible to find the moment during the 11th round, but not even Ali’s cornerman, Wali Muhammad, could see it at the time it happened. But then came the blood.
"I was taking out the mouthpiece and there was more and more blood on it," he told Ali's biographer Thomas Hauser in Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. "My bucket with the water and ice in it became red. In every other fight, between rounds, I’d take the mouthpiece out and put it in the bucket and there was just slobber on it. But here, after each round, I had to shake the mouthpiece to get all the blood out of it into the water.”
"Funny, the jaw didn't hurt so much in the fight," Ali later told Sports Illustrated's Tex Maule. "Under all the heat and the excitement, you don't feel it. Like a man in a street fight. He get cut in the stomach, fights on with his guts hangin' out and don't feel nothin' until he gets to the hospital."
Muhammad Ali entered the ring at the San Diego Sports Arena wearing a robe given to him by Elvis Presley. He left with a broken jaw courtesy of Ken Norton’s fist who also won the 12-round split decision to win the NABF heavyweight title.
Witnesses say Ali’s wife Belinda and advisor Bundini Brown sobbed as Ali exited the ring. From there, knowing the pain was something needing to be looked at, he went straight to hospital after the upset and underwent a 90-minute operation to repair his jaw.
For years, two myths have surrounded the infamous broken jaw. The first was many thought it had happened earlier in the match – from some like Angelo Dundee saying Norton broke the jaw in the second round, to Norton saying he did it in the last round.
Even the surgeon after wiring Ali’s jaw shut claimed it was in the very first round, “I personally don’t understand how he could have gone 11 rounds with that much pain,” said Dr. Gary Manchester. “It was a very bad break. The bone which was broken had three or four jagged edges. The edges kept poking into his cheek and into his mouth. He had so much pain during the fight that he's totally exhausted right now."
Many also believe, including Ken Norton, that perhaps people for Ali ‘were just telling a story to make their fighter look invincible – that Ali could take insurmountable pain.’ Norton claims outright, “I broke his jaw in the last round.”
The second myth centers around who actually broke Ali's jaw. In a classic 15-round battle in 1971, Joe Frazier broke the wings of the self-professed butterfly, but not his jaw. Hurried to his dressing room rather than the post-fight interview area, Ali remained there for about half an hour. Suddenly, he departed for Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital for X-rays of his severely swollen jaw. He was released from the hospital after 40 minutes and left unbandaged and with an x-ray, but nothing broken.
Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw and Muhammad Ali himself has confirmed it.
This is a photo of Ali leaving the ring after the broken jaw fight, and you can see the swelling on the left side of his face where his jaw was broken, great shot.
This is my favorite shot from the broken jaw fight, Norton looks like a beast, just look at the muscle in his left arm, it looks like it's about to explode, and the expression on his face. Epic photo, I'd love to own the original type 1 copy of it.
Ken Norton ripping a shot to the ribcage of Larry Holmes. Great photo, you can see the agony on Holmes' face.
"Of my 70 fights, the toughest guy I ever fought, I gotta go back to the guy I won the title from back in 1978. I fought Kenny Norton for 15 rounds. He didn't want to give, and I didn't want to give, and that's what made me what I am today. Kenny Norton, in my book, was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He didn't get his just due, but he was a great fighter, a great human being. I thank him for the opportunity he gave me to become heavyweight champion of the world. That was the best fight I ever had; that was the hardest fight I ever had." - Larry Holmes
Great stuff from the legendary trainer Eddie Futch.
''The orthodox way a fighter carries his right hand is to position it in front of his jaw. Now Ali... carried the right hand out to the side. I told Norton, 'The only way to hit Ali is to jab with him, jab for jab. The difference is that your hand's in position to catch the jab. His isn't.' Nobody ever tried to jab with Ali and, when Norton did it, it upset Ali's rhythm. Ali was being hit with a jab.
I told Norton, 'The minute you hit him with the jab, step in and jab him again. Two, three moves like that in an 18- to 20-foot ring should force Ali back against the ropes. When you get him to the ropes ... work both hands to the body and make him bring his elbows in to his side to protect his body. When he does, his head will drop, his chin will be there for you. Then hit him with the right.' And that's how Norton broke Ali's jaw. Ali kept leaning into the right hand.''
Ken Norton looking disinterested as Ali speaks to the media at a press conferences, Ali never could get into Norton's head, Norton knew what Ali was doing.
''I think the main thing is that I didn't fall for all his talk. With Frazier and with Foreman, he beat them mentally a lot. When Foreman couldn't stop him with all of those big shots in the early rounds, and Ali was talking to him, it took his edge away. With Joe, he had Joe so mad, Joe was trying to kill him and loading up on everything. You do that and you miss. It takes twice as much out of you. And Ali is just a genius at manipulating people. Ali took advantage of Joe's lack of education. He took advantage of his knowledge of certain things. He took advantage of Joe period. Ali was a quick man. He knew what bothered Joe. What made him angry. So he picked at that and picked at that until Joe was just so furious that, by the time the fight came, he just wanted to kill Ali and it worked in Ali's favour. And so Ali used it for all three fights.
Ali, to me, was not a vindictive man. He was not a man who would say those things and then harp on them and keep doing them. After the fight was over, he forgot the whole thing and moved on. Joe, in his head, it just stuck, all of the things that Ali said. If Ali had not said them at that time, the gate would not have been that big. They would not have made as much money. Me, I didn't fall for the okey-doke. Because I knew what he was trying to do, and I was so into myself at that time, at being the best I could be for that fight.''
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Ken Norton famously used a cross-arm guard, sometimes also called a "cross guard" or "cross-armed defense." He used the cross-arm guard because it was an effective way to neutralize his opponents' offense, particularly the jab, and to pressure them. It allowed him to smother punches, set up counters, and create mental pressure on opponents, disrupting their rhythm and confidence. The guard was particularly effective in infighting and was a key part of his strategy in his famous upset victory over Muhammad Ali. While Norton wasn't the only fighter who fought with this style, he was one of the most famous and one of the most effective. The cross-arm guard can be an effective style, but it requires a high level of skill and awareness. It can also leave a fighter open to the body, and in Norton's case it left him vulnerable to punchers who could trap him and cut off angles with uppercuts.
Gosh, Norton is one of my favorite fighters to watch, if you didn't have murderous punching power like Foreman and Shavers, he was a handful. Norton is a legend, he was in some real knockdown-dragouts, his fight in 1975 with Jerry Quarry at MSG was a great slugfest. Quarry decided to go for broke early in the fight and take Norton out, he rocked Norton a few times, but Quarry wasn't in the best shape of his career and he gassed out. Norton, always in phenomenal shape, bides his time and when he realizes that Quarry is spent he opens up on him with combo after combo, Quarry ended up with two nasty cuts and both fighters were stained in Quarry's blood, great little war. Here are the highlights.
Great shots from the Norton-Quarry fight. You know it's interesting, Jerry Quarry had actually knocked Norton out one time at a sparring session at The Main Street Gym, but he wasn't in good shape at MSG that night and Norton got him. Jerry Quarry, God bless him, there was no quit in the guy, he was all heart and guts, he did not want the referee to stop that fight. But Ken Norton was a great fighter, you had to be on top of your game to beat him.
Another great Norton fight was against Larry Holmes in 1978, fight of the decade candidate right there. Ken Norton had been awarded the WBC heavyweight title after Leon Spinks was stripped of it for refusing to face him, I have to give credit to Spinks, he didn't face Norton because he believed Ali deserved a rematch which is honorable as hell. At the time of this fight, Larry Holmes was making a name for himself and would go on to become one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history and have one of the most dominant title reigns ever. This is an article written about Norton right before the Holmes fight.
THE BUGLE CALL CHAMPION
Ken Norton began boxing as a Marine because he hated to get up for reveille. This week he defends his title
If a navigator were to plot the career course of Kenneth Howard Norton, the chart would show a seemingly aimless path of zigzags and curves. This is because for most of the journey Norton wanted to be something other than a fighter. Yet here he is, a man with a piece of the world heavyweight championship, and this Friday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he defends his WBC title for the first time, facing undefeated and largely unknown Larry Holmes. Norton sees the fight as a screenplay.
"There is a movie script in here somewhere," he was saying at his secluded and serene training base, the unserenely named Massacre Canyon Inn at Gilman Hot Springs, Calif. "It was written a long time ago. The names of the players: Norton and Holmes. The supporting cast. The action, every punch, every small drama. And, at the end, the name of the winner. By a knockout. Or a decision. The end is preordained. It is our destiny. Mine and Larry's.
"I have to believe now that fighting was my destiny," says the 32-year-old ex-Marine. "What else could you call it? Nothing was planned. I never intended to be a fighter. In the Corps I only started boxing because I was unhappy with the football team and I was bored with getting up for reveille every day. As a pro I was just using boxing as a means to meet the right people. I hoped they would open the right doors for me. Boxing wasn't an end, it was a means to an end. When they pay you only $300 for a 10-rounder—and it is your 30th fight and you are pushing 29 and raising a young son by yourself—well, you don't sit around dreaming about being a champion. Not if you are realistic. And hungry. What you think about is finding a good job and starting a new career."
Norton had just showered after a particularly hard workout, and now, dressed in slacks and a T shirt, he sprawled across the king-sized bed in his motel room. From the window he could see his eggshell white Cartier-edition Lincoln Mark IV Continental parked under a nearby copse of dogwood trees. At his ranch house in the exclusive La Dera Heights section of Los Angeles there is a buckskin-colored customized Sting Ray, a customized van, a white Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce and a 1978 Ford station wagon. And he has on order a $50,000 Clenet; only 300 will be made.
Norton is a millionaire, perhaps more than once. Certainly after the Holmes fight he won't be any poorer. His purse for this first title defense will be $2.7 million. For his last previous fight, the 15-round title-elimination win over Jimmy Young—which led to Norton's being named champion by the WBC—he earned $1.5 million. He collected small fortunes for his starring roles in the movies Mandingo and Drum. "Kenny will never need for anything," says Bob Biron, his manager, friend and financial overseer. "All his money is tied up in widows' and orphans' funds. It's safe."
But Norton will not permit himself to forget the time, not many years ago, when he had pressing need for so simple a thing as half a gallon of milk for his son Kenny Jr.
Looking out the window at his Lincoln, Norton became reflective. He thought back to Dec. 13, 1972, the night he fought Charlie Reno 10 tough rounds before 700 people in San Diego. He was paid $300. His professional record was 29-1. "Those were the desperate years. Life was a monster," Norton said. "Once I even planned on robbing a liquor store. I mean, I was going to walk in, hit the dude in the mouth and rip him off. That's how big a monster my life was then. But I could never rob anyone. And for that I can only thank God for the way I was brought up."
Ken Norton was brought up in Jacksonville, Ill., a farming community of 20,000 people near Springfield in the central part of the state. He was born there on Aug. 9, 1945, the only child of middle-income parents: John, a small man, 5'6" but feisty, an engineer in the fire department, and Ruth, a hospital therapist. He admits that they spoiled him badly.
Norton was a gifted athlete early on. He first won public notice in the second grade when he won five events at a Junior Olympic meet. From that point he just became better, mostly without trying. "Sometimes I think it all came too easily for me," he says. "When you are always bigger and faster and stronger than everyone else, there is never anyone to push you. You never really find out how good you can become."
By the time he was a freshman entering Jacksonville High, where he became a hometown legend in football, basketball and track, Norton had grown to 5'11" and 156 pounds. When he was graduated in 1961, he was 6'3" and 198. And by that time he had a physique of the kind cast in bronze and pedestaled in an art museum.
Al Rosenberger, who coached Norton in three sports at Jacksonville, says, "When Ken left us he was all man. His growth in four years was tremendous, but it never seemed to bother him. He grew, but his speed and skill, his agility and his talent, grew with him. His only problem was that he had so much natural ability he was totally unpredictable."
When properly motivated, then as fm now, Norton could be spectacular. In one track meet he entered eight events on a whim. He won five, finished second in three. As a senior, he amassed 288 points in a single track season, a record that still stands and most likely will never be topped. The following year state athletic officials passed a rule—the Norton Law—limiting an athlete to four events in one meet.
As a football and track star, Norton was sought by 86 colleges, among them Miami, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri. But he turned down the big-time football powers and went to Northeast Missouri State College, which offered the security of being not very far from home.
Candid as always, Norton admits, "All my life I was involved in sports and in chasing the ladies. I never had to study hard to make good grades. Everything I did was easy. The result was that I was a little spoiled brat, only 17, and an only child who had always been protected, always got what he wanted. I chose a college close to home because...I don't know if it was a lack of confidence or what. I just didn't want to venture that far from home."
Still, Norton's freshman football season at college was less than a success, mostly because he tried to play despite a collarbone broken during a fistfight two weeks before the season opened. The bone was broken when the man he fought ran into him with a car. The only other fight he can remember having as a youngster took place when, at the age of 14 and standing 5'11", he challenged his diminutive father.
"Are you sure?" said John Norton.
"Yes, sir," said Ken.
"Then put up your hands."
As Norton's hands started to come up, his father hit him in the mouth. End of fight.
In his second year at Northeast Missouri, Norton decided college was not for him, and one day, without a word to anyone, he enlisted in the Marines.
"I was afraid of becoming a teacher and going home and getting stuck there," he says. "I could see nothing but doing nothing day after day. I never had any racial problems at home, because I was a good athlete. But there was a lot of prejudice in the town, and for blacks there was no chance of advancement. The best thing a black could become in that town was a policeman."
Norton saw the Marine Corps as a challenge. He knew if he made it through, he'd come out a better man. Never before had he been made to accept responsibility, not even for himself. It was a choice he has never regretted. "The Corps taught me who I was and what color I was. I didn't know I was black. But in the Corps everything is on a one-on-one basis, and I found out what color I was, and it made me proud to be black. For that, I am grateful to the Corps."
Trained to be a radioman, Norton was assigned to Camp Lejeune, and soon he was a left halfback on the football team. There was another left halfback—a white officer. Norton didn't play much. Discouraged, he quit the squad, and at the urging of a friend he went out for the boxing team.
Until that moment he had only watched a few fights on television with his father. Now he discovered he liked the sport; at the same time—as an otherwise accomplished athlete—he was embarrassed by his incompetence. Not until everyone else had left the gym would he jump rope or shadowbox. He was too self-conscious to train in front of others. It was several steps down from his accustomed star status.
The only real boxing coach he ever had, Pappy Dawson, was killed in a bus accident two weeks after Norton joined the team. After that Norton learned by watching others. He would show up early at tournaments and watch every bout. In his first year he won 10 of 11 fights, mostly on muscle. He became a three-time All-Marine champion and in 1967 won the Pan-American Trials. Then he was told they were taking another heavyweight to the Games. They told Norton his style wasn't "international" enough. He never fought as an amateur again.
When he left the Marines, Norton was approached by Art Rivkin, a San Diego Coca-Cola distributor who had refereed several of his service fights. Rivkin wanted him to turn pro. He said he could put together a group of four businessmen who would pay him $100 a week plus a share of his purses.
Norton had never considered fighting as a professional, but he feared his only other prospect was a return to Jacksonville. He had been married while in the Marines, but that had gone sour and he was left alone with an infant son. A boxing career, he decided, would give him the opportunity to meet a variety of people, to knock on a few doors, and it would give him time to discover what he really wanted to do with his life. Rivkin, Biron, Lloyd Schunemann and A. B. Polansky became his backers.
"The picture Art painted for me was so vivid I could just visualize all the money I'd be raking in," Norton says. "What I made was zilch. What my son and I lived on was that $100 a week. For one hell of a long time."
Although his backers lived in San Diego, it was decided that Norton would live and train in Los Angeles. Sparring partners were scarce in San Diego. Eddie Futch, who lived in L.A., became Norton's trainer and, for the moment, his manager of record.
In his pro debut on Nov. 14, 1967, Norton knocked out Grady Brazell in five rounds. He won his first 16 fights, all by knockout. Then on July 2, 1972 Norton was knocked out by Jose Luis Garcia, whom he later destroyed in five rounds. That loss to Garcia—for which Norton blames overconfidence—was only a temporary setback; he won his next 13 fights, eight of them inside the limit. His record was now 30-1. His bank balance was zero.
At one point during the bleak years Norton called home. "Dad, can you send me some money?" he asked. "I can't make it here. I want to come home."
"No," said John Norton. "Ken, if you quit now, the next hard thing that comes along you'll quit that, too. No, you stick with it. You've got to finish something. Finish this."
With a rueful smile, Norton says that if his father had sent him the money he'd now be back in Jacksonville. And, most likely, a policeman.
"I was desperate," he says. "There was never enough of anything—money, food, clothing. I'd leave Kenny with some people while I trained, and then I'd purposely stay late. I knew if I didn't come home they'd feed him. A lot of people were awfully good to Kenny and me during those years. The people must have known what I was doing, but they never said a word. It was during those times that I actually considered robbing a liquor store. Or a supermarket. When a man is desperate enough, when he has a family to feed and no money, I guess he'll consider anything."
If Norton never considered becoming heavyweight champion, Bob Biron, now 65, gave even less thought to becoming a fight manager. He has been a vice-president of Northrup Aircraft, of TWA, of General Dynamics and vice-chancellor of the University of California at San Diego. At present he is a major Southern California real-estate developer and the owner of the La Jolla Village Inn in San Diego. "Kenny is the only fighter I've ever had, and he's the only one I ever will have," says Biron, who, as a law student, was on the boxing team at the University of Minnesota. "I'm still amazed that I ever got involved in boxing at all.
"At first I was content just to be one of the backers. Futch was doing a good job. In the beginning he handpicked the opponents, getting all the old trial horses for Kenny to bang away on. But then, as his career progressed, it was apparent Ken needed my experience as a negotiator. At one point in Kenny's career, all the money was going to the opponents, to the James J. Woodys and the Jack O'Hallorans. We needed them, and it cost money to bring them from the East. To get opponents like that, all we could get from the promoter was a percentage of what was left over. And a lot of times that was nothing. A lot of times we'd dip into our own pockets and give Kenny $300 or $400 as a token."
But on March 31, 1973, Norton finally got the big break. Shopping for a soft touch, Muhammad Ali's people offered him $50,000 to fight the then ex-champion for (and here they laughed) 12 rounds. Norton told them that for $50,000 he'd fight the Russian army.
A few weeks before the fight Biron received a telephone call from Bob Arum, the promoter. "Hey," Arum said, "can your guy last more than two rounds? If not, with the fight on ABC, we are going to look awful silly."
Biron told Arum not to worry about it.
Howard Cosell, who did the fight telecast, called it the worst mismatch in boxing's history, a disgrace. That was before the fight. Later, after Norton had broken Ali's jaw on his way to an easy upset victory by decision, Cosell made it a point to apologize.
"Kenny, you made me look silly," he said.
"That's O.K., Howard," Norton said. "You always look silly."
Six months later—and this time for $750,000 on closed-circuit TV—Norton fought Ali again. This time the judges gave Ali the victory, by a split decision. From those two fights, Norton was catapulted into a title shot in March 1974 against George Foreman in Caracas, but Foreman stopped him in the second round.
The only thing Norton will say about it is, "No excuse. That night George was the better fighter."
What Norton refuses to discuss are the threats made against his life before the fight. He spent the last week in Caracas surrounded by armed guards, even while he slept. And Foreman, for one reason or another, was threatening to call off the fight right up to the final moment.
"Everywhere Ken went he was surrounded by people with machine guns," Biron says. "Until two hours before the fight we didn't know if it was on or off. At that point Kenny was still in his hotel room. I called and he was rushed to the arena. By this time he had come apart mentally. His eyes were glazed. I doubt if he knew his own name. All that confusion, all that uproar had disturbed him greatly. I never should have let him go on."
Just before the Foreman fight, Futch had quit and moved to Philadelphia to train Joe Frazier, who once had paid Norton $400 a week to be his sparring partner. Norton's new trainer was Bill Slayton, a 56-year-old former linebacker in the old Pacific Coast Conference who drove a truck by day and trained young fighters by night. Slayton's major credits were that he had trained Jerry Quarry for his first four pro fights, and he had taken Adolph Pruitt, a good welterweight, to three title bouts.
Slayton is a powerful man with a gentle nature and a delightful low-key sense of humor. He was the perfect choice to train the sometimes moody Norton. If Futch developed Norton's talents, Slayton honed them to a fine edge.
"At first Kenny was afraid I was going to try and change his style," says Slayton. "I told him I wasn't there to change things, just improve on them. After a few weeks I noticed his little idiosyncrasies and I adjusted to them. You know, he's like a little kid sometimes. I'm an Aries, and I'm stubborn, but I'll learn. He's a Leo, and you know about them—they aren't going any way but their own. We have our little spats, but nothing serious. He'll pout for a couple of hours and then he'll get over it. It's important that I get along with him, not him with me. He's the one who should be comfortable. And once you learn his ways, he's a very beautiful guy."
What Slayton did for Norton mostly was shorten his punches, adding accuracy while taking away none of the sting. Norton had been something of a free swinger, his powerful punches delivered in long loops, and when he missed, he missed badly. He is a pressing fighter, always moving forward, crouched and weaving, his great arms folded across his body in a defense favored by Archie Moore. His jab flicks up and out, the gloves picking off punches almost casually.
Norton's best punch is a hook to the body, and his right uppercut, an unusual weapon, is devastating. But in spite of his knockout record—32 in 44 fights—he does not have that one big punch, like, say, a Louis or a Frazier. He punishes with bursts, each blow effective but not a destroyer in itself.
"That's what I have to keep telling him," Slayton says. "After he knocked out Duane Bobick in one round, he came out thinking he was a big puncher. Well, he isn't. If I let him think that, he'll get wild again, and then, oh, Lord, we'll have problems."
Since his loss to Foreman, Norton has had 11 fights, including the controversial loss to Ali in their third match in 1976. Only three other fights, the first of them a knockout of Quarry in the fifth round, were of any significance. It was after the Quarry fight, his 37th as a professional and after he had already fought twice for the title, that Norton finally decided he was going to make boxing his career. At last, he stopped looking for other employment. "That's when I got to thinking, 'Hey, these chumps aren't any better than me,' " he says. "Then I could see that with just a little more work, with a little more effort, I could make it. I had made the movie Mandingo after the Foreman fight, and then I came back and watched the Quarry-Frazier fight films.
"I really got motivated. Quarry didn't show me that much. I had worked with Frazier, and I felt I was on the same level with Joe, and I was still improving. I had started to fight late in my life. Each fight had been a learning experience. I was still learning. That's when I started thinking world champion, and not to just use boxing as a stepping-stone to something else. Now I was motivated into going for the title for the first time in my career. Quarry was just the first step in that direction."
Step 2 was the one-round knockout of Bobick. Step 3 was the 15-round decision over Young. Then, a few months ago, when new heavyweight champion Leon Spinks backed out of a promised fight with Norton in favor of a return match with Ali, the WBC gave Norton its version of the world championship and told him to defend it first against Holmes. That's what he will be doing Friday night.
"I guess it all goes back to what my father told me," says Norton. "A man should never give up on himself. I have a saying now: what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. In life you have to keep pounding away. Everyone has ups and downs, but you really show what you are made of when you bounce back from defeat. You may slip and fall once in a while, but if you get up and keep walking you'll get to where you want to go."
He doubles up a size 13 fist, and he laughs, breaking the somber mood. "And now," he says, "let me show you what destiny has in store for that bigmouthed Larry Holmes."
The Norton-Holmes fight is why we love this sport, as a boxing fan, you just couldn't as for more, those two men gave us a gift that night that will forever be cherished.
Larry Holmes-Ken Norton Round 15: The Greatest In World Heavyweight Title Fight History?
By James Slater
06/09/2023 - Some dates, some fight dates, they stick in your mind. June 9th is one such date. Why? Because it just might have been that on this date, back in 1978, the world witnessed, A: one of the greatest heavyweight title fights of all-time. B: the single greatest round in all of heavyweight title fighting. And C: the crowning of one of the Top 3 or so finest heavyweight champions in the history of the division. It was on this day 45 years ago, when Larry Holmes and Ken Norton met in Las Vegas, the WBC heavyweight title on the line. Norton, who had been crowned courtesy of his win over Jimmy Young, this victory earning Norton a shot at the WBC belt Muhammad Ali would lose in a stunning upset to Leon Spinks. Spinks declined a fight with Norton, preferring the more lucrative return with “The Greatest.” So, Norton was handed the belt that had been stripped from “Neon Leon.” And now, against the unbeaten Holmes, Norton was made to fight tooth and nail in an effort at keeping it. So much has been written about this great fight over the years, with plenty of people saying Homes-Norton was the last great 15 round heavyweight battle. And of course, plenty of experts, fans, historians, fellow fighters continue to marvel over that 15th and final round. Going into the Holmes-Norton fight, there were no great expectations of a classic that would be remembered for many years, indeed decades. But, with the hype level pretty low, what Holmes and Norton gave us was a fight that raised the bar as far as how magnificent a heavyweight prize fight really could be. You may pick other heavyweight battles over Holmes WS15 Norton as far as your favourite war, with plenty of fans never changing their opinion that Ali-Frazier III is THE heavyweight epic all others should be judged against. Or maybe you like the utterly torrid, almost impossible to keep up with Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo slugfest. Maybe you list another heavyweight showdown as your all-time fave. But nobody, as in absolutely nobody, who has ever seen Holmes-Norton will ever have it be said that the fight is not deserving of a place in the Top 10 heavyweight honours list. And it is in large part due to that punishing, back and forth, unrelenting final round. Both men were literally fighting for the win, for the title in those final three minutes. The fight was this close on the cards, with the three judges having the fight even after 14. Holmes knew what he had to do. Norton knew what his mission was. Win that last round! And so, after both well-conditioned, savagely determined and hungry heavyweights had given oh, so much over the course of those 14 rounds – 42 minutes of red-hot warfare – they each dipped into an unseen reservoir of heart, guts, stamina and more heart as they took each other on a three-minute journey through hell. Norton won the first half of the most important round of his entire ring career. Holmes won the second half of the round that, had he lost it, he would never have been given another chance to rule the world. Norton cracked some hefty right hands into Holmes’ skull, Larry’s gum-shield being sent flying at one point. But Holmes, who had entered the fight with a handicap in the form of a torn muscle in his left arm, his jabbing arm, came back to visibly stagger Norton, Larry perhaps almost scoring a knockdown. It was a heck of a round, so fast-paced, with the two men showing the kind of activity levels that would have been far more at home in a much earlier round. Norton had landed more punches; Holmes had scored with bigger shots. Holmes had done it. Just. The scores were 143-142, 143-142 for Holmes, 143-142 for Norton. Holmes celebrated by jumping into the swimming pool at Caesars Palace. Norton had fought his last great fight, his greatest fight. Holmes would rule for over seven years. Never again did he find a dance partner who was capable of rumbling with him in as special, as treasured a round as that 15th round of otherworldliness he went through with Norton.
Phenomenal shots from Norton-Holmes, it was that kind of fight.
Ken Norton's shining moment.
Norton-Ali 1 is the fight that earned Norton the nickname "The Jawbreaker" and is undoubtedly Norton's biggest triumph. Only a handful of fighters were able to hand "The Greatest" a loss, and Ken Norton can make that claim. Norton and Ali went to war three times and each fight was highly contested. Norton gave Ali hell, styles make fights and Ali struggled with Norton's style, Ali himself said that he never could figure Norton out.
The Fight City
March 31, 1973: Ali vs Norton I
By: Jamie Rebner
Few deny that Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all-time, perhaps even “The Greatest,” and a major part of the evidence for that claim is the fact that during his prime, only two men defeated him, both terrific fighters in their own right. One was Joe Frazier, his arch-rival, the man who sent Ali to hell and back in both their first great battle in 1971, and again in the monumental “Thrilla in Manila.” But if Ali was the Superman of the heavyweight division in the 1970’s, the other boxer who could rightfully claim to be his kryptonite was of course, Ken Norton.
A young Norton (center) with his trainer Eddie Futch (left) and Joe Frazier.
Norton’s ability to give Ali fits in all three of their clashes is evidence of the truth behind one of boxing’s most overused clichés, the famous saying that “styles make fights.” But the simple fact is some boxers simply have a style which causes all kinds of problems for a pugilist who is otherwise superior. For example, no one in their right mind would argue that Iran Barkley deserves to be regarded as a greater fighter than Thomas Hearns, but the record shows that “The Blade” beat “The Hitman” twice; Barkley just had Hearns’ number and that cannot be denied.
In the same way, Norton’s name is hardly uttered in any serious debate about the greatest heavyweights of all-time, and yet he not only gave Ali serious difficulties, but came very close to winning all three of their meetings.
Ali’s long struggle with Ken Norton, one lasting thirty-nine tough, punishing rounds, began in Norton’s hometown of San Diego, California. Norton was a relative unknown and a huge underdog, but from the opening bell his jerky movement, tricky defense and effective left jab gave the former champion pause. The fact Ali was in for a much tougher fight than anyone anticipated was clear as early as the second round, a stanza which saw Norton score with several looping left hooks, as well as some stiff jabs and lead right hands. Norton out-landed Ali 34 to 12 in that round, while connecting at a much higher percentage (63%) than the Louisville native (26%).
Ali reversed the tide in round three, circling the ring on his toes, flicking out his jab, and showing the skills that made him so successful. His movement flummoxed Norton, who had difficulty cutting off the ring. This proved to be a pattern of the fight; when Ali used his stick-and-move tactics he was effective, but when he elected to stand and trade, he paid a high price.
Norton kept Ali on the defensive for much of the fight.
At the start of round six, ringside commentator Howard Cosell summarized the match to that point: “Either Kenny Norton is a much smarter, much better fighter than anybody thought, or Muhammad Ali has gone back a lot more than one could have reasonably believed.” But in retrospect it was unfair to Norton to say his success was due to Ali’s apparent lethargy or supposed decline. Simply put, Norton deserved tremendous credit for getting into peak condition, boxing with great poise and discipline, and executing Eddie Futch’s game-plan to perfection.
Ali managed a resurgence in round eight as he got on his bicycle again and stayed one step ahead of the pursuing Norton. Despite not landing damaging blows, his savvy ring skills were evident as he took control of the pace and prevented Norton from cornering him. But the ex-champion’s success proved fleeting as Norton had one of his best rounds in the ninth, snapping Ali’s head back with a hard left jab while blocking or slipping the lead left of “The Louisville Lip.” Norton was also able to pin his opponent to the ropes and drive home some vicious body blows, going on to out-land Ali 30 to 9 in this stanza.
By round 12 it was clear to anyone watching with attention that a massive upset was about to happen, that Muhammad needed a stoppage to win. But despite his points lead, Norton closed the show with the same aggression and fearlessness he had demonstrated throughout the contest. In the final round he forced the fight and pursued Ali to the ropes where he struck to the body with heavy punches, and with a minute left, he landed with authority a left hook-right hand combination. Norton put an exclamation point on the fight, outworking and outpunching the former champion, in complete command at the final bell.
Despite this, hearing the official decision go to the underdog was still a shock for sports fans everywhere, though the punch stats clearly supported the judges’ verdict, with Norton landing 233 total punches to Ali’s meager 171. It was a huge upset and a result that showed that no matter how brilliant a boxer may be, there is always someone, somewhere, with the style and strategy to beat the unbeatable. There was also the fact that Ali was by all accounts in less than prime condition, while Norton had whipped himself into the best shape of his life. And he followed perfectly the plan set out by his prolific trainer, Eddie Futch, the man who was also the strategic mastermind behind Ali’s loss to Frazier.
Norton celebrates the judges’ decision.
In a memorable moment after the fight, Cosell, who had given Norton no chance to win, told him in the post-fight interview, “Kenny, you made me look silly.” “That’s okay, Howard,” replied Norton. “You always look silly.”
Following the match it was revealed that Norton had broken Ali’s jaw. When exactly the injury occurred is impossible to know for certain, though Ali and his corner always insisted it happened in the second round. If true, the feat of competing for ten rounds with such an injury against a pugilist as strong and powerful as Ken Norton has to rank as one of the greatest displays of courage in the history of boxing. However, Norton’s fervent opinion was that he broke Ali’s mandible in the final round.
Don King offers support as Ali holds an ice pack to his injured jaw.
If the first Ali vs Norton match proves the truth of the old “styles make fights” adage, it also demonstrated how one opportunity can transform a person’s life. Prior to his battle with Ali, Norton was a single father who could barely make ends meet and no doubt his impressive performance was a product of being supremely motivated. Before the fight he was an unknown, a contender, one of many; after the fight, he joined the elite of the division and became a worthy challenger for heavyweight champion George Foreman. As Norton himself put it years later: “The first Ali fight gave me a chance to give my son more food, better clothes. A fight with Ali gave me a chance at life, period.”
— Jamie Rebner
It's fascinating, the X-Ray of Muhammad Ali's broken jaw from the first Norton fight actually sold for $1,500 at auction back in 2015. You can see a nasty break in the jaw. One thing about Ken Norton, he was built like a Roman God, he could punch.
Muhammad Ali
My Broken Jaw X-Ray
... Rakes In Big Money!
By TMZ Staff
Published October 25, 2015 12:45
Updated May 13, 2019 2:11 PM
In the market for an authentic X-ray of Muhammad Ali's broken jaw??? Well, too bad ... 'cause it just sold at one of the coolest charity auctions we've ever seen.
It's a pretty cool piece of memorabilia -- taken right after Ken Norton busted his face during their big fight in 1973 ... a fight Ali actually lost.
Ali signed the X-ray, "To Carol & Russ From Muhammad Ali, 1973" ... and it ended up in the private collection of "Simpsons" creator Sam Simon, a HUUUUGE boxing fan.
Simon's massive collection was auctioned off to raise money for his charity organization -- along with a TON of other cool stuff -- with the X-ray raking in a cool $1,500! No word on the I.D. of the buyer.
All of the proceeds from the auction -- which raised more than $250k -- supports both animal welfare programs and poverty alleviation and disaster relief organizations.
The broken jaw is a mythical moment in boxing history, it's a fascinating story. The exact round Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw is disputed, Ali and his corner insisted it happened in the second round, while Norton's camp believed it was the 12th and final round.
Muhammad Ali's Jaw Broke By Ken Norton's Fist.
Perhaps the only person at the time that knew Muhammad Ali's jaw was broken during the former champion's match with Ken Norton on March 1, 1973 was Muhammad Ali himself.
Watching recordings of the fight, it’s possible to find the moment during the 11th round, but not even Ali’s cornerman, Wali Muhammad, could see it at the time it happened. But then came the blood.
"I was taking out the mouthpiece and there was more and more blood on it," he told Ali's biographer Thomas Hauser in Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. "My bucket with the water and ice in it became red. In every other fight, between rounds, I’d take the mouthpiece out and put it in the bucket and there was just slobber on it. But here, after each round, I had to shake the mouthpiece to get all the blood out of it into the water.”
"Funny, the jaw didn't hurt so much in the fight," Ali later told Sports Illustrated's Tex Maule. "Under all the heat and the excitement, you don't feel it. Like a man in a street fight. He get cut in the stomach, fights on with his guts hangin' out and don't feel nothin' until he gets to the hospital."
Muhammad Ali entered the ring at the San Diego Sports Arena wearing a robe given to him by Elvis Presley. He left with a broken jaw courtesy of Ken Norton’s fist who also won the 12-round split decision to win the NABF heavyweight title.
Witnesses say Ali’s wife Belinda and advisor Bundini Brown sobbed as Ali exited the ring. From there, knowing the pain was something needing to be looked at, he went straight to hospital after the upset and underwent a 90-minute operation to repair his jaw.
For years, two myths have surrounded the infamous broken jaw. The first was many thought it had happened earlier in the match – from some like Angelo Dundee saying Norton broke the jaw in the second round, to Norton saying he did it in the last round.
Even the surgeon after wiring Ali’s jaw shut claimed it was in the very first round, “I personally don’t understand how he could have gone 11 rounds with that much pain,” said Dr. Gary Manchester. “It was a very bad break. The bone which was broken had three or four jagged edges. The edges kept poking into his cheek and into his mouth. He had so much pain during the fight that he's totally exhausted right now."
Many also believe, including Ken Norton, that perhaps people for Ali ‘were just telling a story to make their fighter look invincible – that Ali could take insurmountable pain.’ Norton claims outright, “I broke his jaw in the last round.”
The second myth centers around who actually broke Ali's jaw. In a classic 15-round battle in 1971, Joe Frazier broke the wings of the self-professed butterfly, but not his jaw. Hurried to his dressing room rather than the post-fight interview area, Ali remained there for about half an hour. Suddenly, he departed for Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital for X-rays of his severely swollen jaw. He was released from the hospital after 40 minutes and left unbandaged and with an x-ray, but nothing broken.
Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw and Muhammad Ali himself has confirmed it.
This is a photo of Ali leaving the ring after the broken jaw fight, and you can see the swelling on the left side of his face where his jaw was broken, great shot.
This is my favorite shot from the broken jaw fight, Norton looks like a beast, just look at the muscle in his left arm, it looks like it's about to explode, and the expression on his face. Epic photo, I'd love to own the original type 1 copy of it.
One of the things I love about Ken Norton is his body punching, he was a vicious body puncher.
Let's get a few photos of Ken Norton during his career. This is a photo of Norton shadowboxing.
Norton in 1972, this is around the time he hit his absolute prime.
Ken Norton ripping a shot to the ribcage of Larry Holmes. Great photo, you can see the agony on Holmes' face.
"Of my 70 fights, the toughest guy I ever fought, I gotta go back to the guy I won the title from back in 1978. I fought Kenny Norton for 15 rounds. He didn't want to give, and I didn't want to give, and that's what made me what I am today. Kenny Norton, in my book, was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He didn't get his just due, but he was a great fighter, a great human being. I thank him for the opportunity he gave me to become heavyweight champion of the world. That was the best fight I ever had; that was the hardest fight I ever had." - Larry Holmes
Great stuff from the legendary trainer Eddie Futch.
''The orthodox way a fighter carries his right hand is to position it in front of his jaw. Now Ali... carried the right hand out to the side. I told Norton, 'The only way to hit Ali is to jab with him, jab for jab. The difference is that your hand's in position to catch the jab. His isn't.' Nobody ever tried to jab with Ali and, when Norton did it, it upset Ali's rhythm. Ali was being hit with a jab.
I told Norton, 'The minute you hit him with the jab, step in and jab him again. Two, three moves like that in an 18- to 20-foot ring should force Ali back against the ropes. When you get him to the ropes ... work both hands to the body and make him bring his elbows in to his side to protect his body. When he does, his head will drop, his chin will be there for you. Then hit him with the right.' And that's how Norton broke Ali's jaw. Ali kept leaning into the right hand.''
Ken Norton looking disinterested as Ali speaks to the media at a press conferences, Ali never could get into Norton's head, Norton knew what Ali was doing.
''I think the main thing is that I didn't fall for all his talk. With Frazier and with Foreman, he beat them mentally a lot. When Foreman couldn't stop him with all of those big shots in the early rounds, and Ali was talking to him, it took his edge away. With Joe, he had Joe so mad, Joe was trying to kill him and loading up on everything. You do that and you miss. It takes twice as much out of you. And Ali is just a genius at manipulating people. Ali took advantage of Joe's lack of education. He took advantage of his knowledge of certain things. He took advantage of Joe period. Ali was a quick man. He knew what bothered Joe. What made him angry. So he picked at that and picked at that until Joe was just so furious that, by the time the fight came, he just wanted to kill Ali and it worked in Ali's favour. And so Ali used it for all three fights.
Ali, to me, was not a vindictive man. He was not a man who would say those things and then harp on them and keep doing them. After the fight was over, he forgot the whole thing and moved on. Joe, in his head, it just stuck, all of the things that Ali said. If Ali had not said them at that time, the gate would not have been that big. They would not have made as much money. Me, I didn't fall for the okey-doke. Because I knew what he was trying to do, and I was so into myself at that time, at being the best I could be for that fight.''
This is my favorite of Norton during an Ali press conference, he absolutely would not let Ali get in his head.