THE MAN WHO SHUT UP ALI, Former heavyweight boxer Ken Norton Sr. dies at 70

Kenneth Howard Norton Sr., an American former heavyweight boxer and former WBC world Heavyweight Champion who fought three memorable fights with Muhammad Ali, breaking his jaw in winning their first bout, then losing twice, and went on to become the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, died Wednesday in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. He was 70.  His death was confirmed by his son Ken Jr., an assistant coach with the N.F.L.’s Seattle Seahawks and a pro linebacker for 13 seasons, The Associated Press said. Norton had been in poor health for several years after sustaining a series of strokes.

Norton had led a checkered and unusual life. Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, Norton grew up in the central Illinois town wanting to get out. Boxing was no where on the horizon for him. Football and track were if he could make it to adulthood.

He was kind of a wild kid, not delinquent wild but wild in a way that made it seem he would never live to grow up. One day when he was 8 he raced a train to a crossing on his bike and lost. There was not much left of the bike, but all of Ken seemed to be there still. At 14, on another bike, he was hit by a trailer truck and wound up on its hood, again unscathed. Scratch another bike. In high school he lettered in basketball, football and track and got numerous scholarship offers.

He chose Northeast Missouri State and immediately was hit by a car, breaking his collarbone. Six months afterward he drove his car into the side of a bridge, where it hung by the rear door from a piece of railing 50 feet above a lake. Later, on a bet, he took eight sleeping pills and had to have his stomach pumped.

Eventually, Norton joined the Marines and it was there he learned to box. Norton said, “The Marines were tough but they taught me to be my own man.” From 1965 to 1967, Norton won the All Marine Corps Boxing Championship. Shortly before his release from the Marines, Norton turned pro.

 

Ken Norton as Mandingo

Norton acted in many movies, most notably the 1975 Hollywood film “Mandingo,” in which he played the slave Mede, who is trained to fight by his owner.

Norton struggled for several years to make a living. When Norton was signed to fight Ali, he was ranked number seven in the world. He was not the number one contender and Ali saw the fight more as a tuneup before Foreman. Norton saw the fight as an opportunity to put food on the table for his young family, including his son and future NFL linebacker, Ken Norton, Jr. Norton never forgot that about Ali. For this reason the two would meet again six months later in September of 1973. Years take place between title fights for some boxers. But in the 70s, it did not take long.

Ali was beginning to move from his early 30s to his mid 30s. Norton, 29, changed the boxing landscape in the 1970s and gave Ali his hardest challenges in the ring over the next three years.

Leading up the fight, Ali had not taken Norton seriously. In the pre-fight discussion, Cosell mentions Ali’s attitude and light 10 oz. gloves and how those gloves could harm a man. In the first round, the newspapers reported that Norton had broken Ali’s jaw. Trainer Angelo Dundee wanted to stop the fight, but Ali would not let Dundee throw in the towel.

The fight, seen here in its entirety, shows Norton’s unorthodox style of dragging his right foot while putting more pressure on his left.

The resulting decision for Norton reshaped the boxing landscape for Ali. Had Ali won, George Foreman would have been next. However, with Norton’s win, a new champion would determine the order of battle.

Few gave Norton, who possessed a muscular, sculpted body, much of a chance against Ali in the fight, held at the Sports Arena in San Diego, where Norton lived. 

But his awkward style and close-in pressing tactics confused his opponent and Norton broke Ali's jaw on the way to the decision that put him in the top echelon of heavyweight fighters.

Joe Norton's fight against Larry Holmes is considered one of the classic heavyweight bouts of all time.