Ken Norton

'Name' opponents were elusive in Norton's early career. His first big break came with a clear win over respected contender Henry Clark. This helped get him his world recognition. What helped even more was when Ali agreed to a match. Joe Frazier, who'd sparred with Norton and defeated Ali presciently said of Ali, "He'll have plenty of trouble!" Though both were top boxers in the mid 1970s, Norton and Frazier never fought each other, in part because they shared the same trainer, Eddie Futch, and also because they were good friends and didn't want to fight each other.[18]

For the first match, on March 31, 1973, Muhammad Ali entered the ring at the San Diego Sports Arena[19] wearing a robe given to him by Elvis Presley as a 5–1 favorite versus Ken Norton, then rated a number 6 world contender[20] in a bout televised by ABC's Wide World of Sports.[21] Norton won a 12-round split decision over Ali in his adopted hometown of San Diego to win the NABF heavyweight title.[13] In this bout, Norton broke Ali's jaw (he maintains in round eleven, though Angelo Dundee said it was earlier), leading to only the second defeat for "The Greatest" in his career. (Ali's only previous loss was to Joe Frazier, and Ali would later go on to defeat George Foreman to regain the heavyweight title in 1974.)

Almost six months later at The Forum in Inglewood, California, on September 10, 1973, Ali avenged the Norton loss but only after he got the return by a close split decision.[22] Norton weighed in at 206 lbs (5 pounds lighter than his first match with Ali) and some boxing writers suggested that his preparation was too intense and that perhaps he had overtrained. There were some furious exchanges in this hard-fought battle. From Ali's point of view, a loss here would have seriously dented his claim of ever being "The Greatest." During the ABC broadcast of the fight, broadcaster (and Ali confidant and friend) Howard Cosell repeatedly told viewers a dancing and jabbing Ali was dominating the action despite Norton's constant offense and Ali's inability to penetrate Norton's awkward defensive style. The close and controversial scoring was in stark contrast to Cosell's fight-long insistence that Ali had matters well in hand.

In 1974, Norton fought George Foreman for the world heavyweight championship and was knocked out in the second round at the Poliedro de Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela. After an even first round, Foreman staggered Norton with an uppercut a minute into round two, pushing him into the ropes. Norton did not hit the canvas, but continued on wobbly legs, clearly not having recovered, and shortly he went down a further two times in quick succession, with the referee intervening and stopping the fight. This fight would become known as the "Caracas Caper".

In 1975, Norton regained the NABF heavyweight title when he impressively defeated Jerry Quarry by TKO in the fifth round. Norton then avenged his 1970 loss to Jose Luis Garcia by decisively knocking out Garcia in round five.

Norton in 1976

On September 28, 1976, at Yankee Stadium in New York City, Norton fought his third and final bout against Ali,[22] who was now the world heavyweight champion, having regained the title with an eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in 1974. Many observers have felt this fight marked the beginning of Ali's decline as a boxer. It was a tough bruising battle for Ali. In one of the most disputed fights in history, the fight was even on the judges' scorecards going into the final round, which Ali won on both the referee's and judges' scorecards to retain the world heavyweight championship. The two judges, Harold Lederman and Barney Smith, scored the bout 8–7 for Ali, while referee Arthur Mercante scored it 8–6-1 for Ali. At the end of the last round, the commentator announced he would be "very surprised" if Norton has not won the fight.[23]

At the time of the third Ali-Norton bout, the last time a heavyweight champion had lost the title by decision was Max Baer to Jim Braddock 41 years earlier, and Ali-Norton III did not break this established pattern. The January 1998 issue of Boxing Monthly listed Ali-Norton as the fifth most disputed title fight decision in boxing history. The unofficial United Press International scorecard was 8–7 for Norton, and the unofficial Associated Press scorecards were 9–6 for Ali (Ed Schuyler), and 8–7 Norton (Wick Temple)..

Despite obtaining a victory, Ali received a pounding. His tactics were to try to push Norton back, but they had failed. He'd refused to 'dance' until the 9th when in sheer desperation, although the crowd roared its appreciation. Norton has said the third fight with Ali was the last boxing match for which he was fully motivated, owing to his disappointment at having lost a fight he believed he had clearly won.

1977 was a career year for Norton. He knocked out previously unbeaten top prospect Duane Bobick in just one round, then dispatched European title holder Lorenzo Zanon in a 'tune-up' fight. Light-hitting but fast, Zanon was actually well ahead until a burst of heavy punches put him down and out.

Norton then defeated polished number two contender Jimmy Young (who himself had beaten George Foreman and Ron Lyle) via 15-round split decision in a WBC title-elimination bout, with the winner to face reigning WBC champion Ali. (However, Ali's camp told The Ring they did not want to fight Norton for a fourth time.) Both boxers fought a smart fight, with Norton using a heavy body attack whilst Young moved well and countered. The decision was controversial, with many observers thinking Young had done enough to win.

Although Norton was expected to face Ali for a fourth time, to fight for the WBC heavyweight championship, plans changed due to Ali's loss of his title to Leon Spinks on February 15, 1978. The WBC then ordered a match between the new champion and Norton, its number one contender. Spinks however, chose to face Ali in his first title defence, instead of facing Norton.[24][25] The WBC responded on March 18, 1978, by retroactively giving title fight status to Norton's victory over Young the year before and awarding Norton their championship, which split the heavyweight championship for the first time since Jimmy Ellis and Joe Frazier were both recognized as champions in the early 1970s.[4][26]

In his first defense of the WBC title on June 9, 1978, Norton and new number one contender Larry Holmes met in a classic fight. After 15 brutal rounds, Holmes was awarded the title via an extremely close split decision. Two of the three judges scored the fight 143–142 for Holmes while the third scored the bout 143–142 for Norton.[27] The Associated Press scored it 143–142 for Norton.[28] The March 2001 edition of The Ring listed the final round of the Holmes–Norton bout as the seventh most exciting round in boxing history and International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) member Monte D. Cox ranked the bout as the tenth greatest heavyweight fight of all time. Holmes went on to become the third-longest reigning world heavyweight champion in the history of boxing, behind Joe Louis and Wladimir Klitschko. Years later, Holmes wrote that the bout was his toughest fight of all his seventy-five contests.

After losing to Holmes, Norton won his next fight by knockout over sixth-ranked Randy Stephens in 1978[29] before taking on Earnie Shavers in another compulsory WBC title eliminator fight in Las Vegas on March 23, 1979. For the first time it appeared that Norton's career had perhaps hit a decline, particularly after the Holmes match[30] as Shavers took the former champion out in the first round. But it also created a view that his confidence was not good against hard hitters such as Foreman, Shavers and later Cooney. However Norton himself always denied this, saying that he was past his prime when he was stopped by Shavers and Cooney.[31][32]

In his next fight, he fought to a split draw with unheralded but durable lower ranked contender Scott LeDoux at the Met Center in Minneapolis. Norton dominated until sustaining an injury when he took a thumb in the eye in the eighth round, which immediately changed the bout. LeDoux rallied from that point and Norton became decidedly fatigued. Norton was down two times in the final round, resulting in the draw; Norton fell behind on one scorecard, kept his lead on the second, and dropped to even on the third (the unofficial AP scorecard was 5–3–2 Norton).[33]

After the fight, Norton decided that at 37 it was time to retire from boxing.[34] However, not satisfied with the way he had gone out, Norton returned to the ring to face the undefeated Randall "Tex" Cobb in Cobb's home state of Texas on November 7, 1980. In an all action back-and-forth fight, Norton escaped with a split decision, with referee Tony Perez and judge Chuck Hassett voting in his favor and judge Arlen Bynum giving the fight to Cobb. In the March 1981 issue of The Ring, Norton was still one of the world's top ten ranked heavyweights.[35]

The win over the title-contending Cobb gave Norton another shot at a potential title-fight, and on May 11, 1981, at Madison Square Garden he stepped into the ring with top contender and new White Hope Gerry Cooney, who, like Cobb, was undefeated entering the fight. Very early in the fight Norton was buckled by Cooney's punches. Norton continued to take shots from Cooney in his corner for nearly a full minute before Perez stepped in to stop the fight fifty-four seconds into the first round, as Norton was slumped in his corner, leaving Cooney the victor by first round technical knockout. Norton decided to retire following the match and turned his attention to charitable pursuits.[36]