Remembering the Legendary Former Heavyweight Champion Kenny Norton

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

One of the great things I have become aware of over the years following boxing is its sheer size. There are enough world titles to make your head spin but more than enough worthy champions to fill them – most of the time.

Sometimes, it does mean that in the shadows are boxers who should have hogged enough of the limelight to become as famous as those boxers with whom they once shared a ring.

One such fighter was Ken Norton.

Now like many who love boxing, my introduction and apprenticeship came through my father. Not a highly-educated man but one who held very strong views. Of Norton he said little, perhaps mesmerized by the likes of Ali, Foreman and Frazier, about whom it was easy to have strong views. It was also an age when getting your news and views were way more difficult than today and often I wonder what may father would have made of a digital age.

Norton was a 50-fight veteran by the time he retired in 1981 with 42 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw.

From Jacksonville, Illinois, Norton growing up was an all-round athlete. His abilities in American football, basketball and athletics won him a scholarship to College before his career pathway took him into the Marines. Prior to ending up in boxing, Norton’s college career saw him compete in athletics events in which he excelled so much that the State brought in the Ken Norton Rule to limit the number of sports in which college students could compete – such was his dominance. It was in the Marines though that he took up boxing and became the All-Marine heavyweight champion.

Moving into the professional game was a relatively easy choice for him and Norton was able to make a living through sparring with the likes of his close friend, Joe Frazier. Competitively he started to knock out of his way journeymen and make a bit of a reputation for himself.
Bright lights were not fare away and perhaps unfairly, his greatest known feat was to break Ali’s jaw in their first fight which he won on points. It was the first of 3 fights against The Greatest; the other 2 he lost in decisions very many believe he won.

A supreme athlete he had an awkward defensive style that caused Ali, and many others, problems. In 1973 when he fought Ali for the first time he was thought of as the underdog. Ali just was unable to find a way of dealing with a guy who jabbed up and not across; it put Ali in hospital and on the end of a split decision that did not go his way. Many commentators of the time gave Norton no chance and one called it the worst mismatch in boxing history and a disgrace! Norton was able to throw those words straight back down his throat.

Of course, Ali was to enact revenge not once but twice. The first rematch was another split decision win and the decider, given narrowly to Ali was greeted with boos inside the Yankee Stadium in New York.

Whilst he never fought his friend Joe Frazier, he did enter the ring, in 1974, with the third heavyweight giant of the era, George Foreman. In Caracas, Foreman was to stop Norton in the 2nd round in a heavyweight title fight, after sending him to the canvass 3 times. It was an ignominious loss and allowed Foreman to retain a belt he had won in the ring with Frazier.

There was further controversy for Norton, when in 1978 he was awarded the heavyweight title when he was the mandatory challenger for Leon Spinks but Spinks spurned Norton to fight Ali, against whom he had just won the title, in 1978. The WBC awarded Norton the title, stripping Spinks. Norton was to defend the title only once as he faced Larry Holmes in a 15-round boxing treat that many think was one of the best ever heavyweight fights. Caesars Palace, Las Vegas was the venue for a war that has entered the annals of history with Holmes winning by a split decision and going on to be a dominant figure in heavyweight boxing until the mid-1980’s; Norton was now on his decline.

In 1986, after his retirement in 1981, he was to suffer multiple injuries in a car crash that nearly killed him. He had been a ringside commentator and an actor, his physique catching him roles opposite the likes of Pam Grier and Susan George prior to this. The car accident left him with impairment to his speech and his declining health, over time, led to his residing in a care home before he lost his biggest battle to life in 2013.

Though he was a world champion by default and he did enter the ring against 2 of the 3 biggest names in 1970’s boxing, losing on 3 occasions out of 4, Norton’s career should be seen as an almighty triumph. He was a true champion at a time when that phrase meant more than hand picking opponents and creating hype to go with your profile. To a young kid in Scotland he was a name that meant little more than the guy his favourite was supposed to beat; that he reversed that expectation was my first introduction to how fickle boxing as a sport can be.

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