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| FILE - In this Sept. 10, 1973, file photo, Muhammad Ali, right, winces as Ken Norton hits him with a left to the head during their re-match at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Norton, a former heavyweight champion, has died, his son said, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. He was 70. |
LAS VEGAS
(AP) -- Former heavyweight champion Ken Norton, who beat Muhammad Ali
and later lost a controversial decision to him in Yankee Stadium, died
Wednesday at a local care facility, his son said. He was 70.
Ken
Norton Jr., a coach with the Seattle Seahawks, confirmed the death to
The Associated Press before handing the phone to his wife, too
distraught to talk.
Norton had been in poor health for the last several years after suffering a series of strokes, a friend of the fighter said.
"He's
been fighting the battle for two years," said Gene Kilroy, Ali's former
business manager. "I'm sure he's in heaven now with all the great
fighters. I'd like to hear that conversation."
Norton
broke Ali's jaw in their first bout, beating him by split decision in
1973 in a non-title fight in San Diego. They fought six months later,
and Ali won a split decision.
They met for a third time on Sept. 28, 1976, at Yankee Stadium and Ali narrowly won to keep his heavyweight title.
Norton
would come back the next year to win a heavyweight title eliminator and
was declared champion by the World Boxing Council. But on June 9, 1978,
he lost a bruising 15-round fight to Larry Holmes in what many regard
as one of boxing's epic heavyweight bouts and would never be champion
again.
Norton finished with a record of 42-7-1
and 33 knockouts. He would later embark on an acting career, appearing
in several movies, and was a commentator at fights.
Norton
started boxing when he was in the Marines, and began his pro career
after his release from duty in 1967. He lost only once in his early
fights but had fought few fighters of any note when he was selected to
meet Ali. At the time, Ali was campaigning to try to win back the
heavyweight crown he lost to Joe Frazier in 1973.
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.
"Ali
thought it would be an easy fight," Kilroy said. "But Norton was
unorthodox. Instead of jabbing from above like most fighters he would
put his hand down and jab up at Ali."
Kilroy
said after the fight Norton visited Ali at the hospital where he was
getting his broken jaw wired. Ali, he said, told him he was a great
fighter and he never wanted to fight him again.
Instead,
they would meet two more times, including the final fight at Yankee
Stadium on a night when police were on strike and many in the crowd
feared for their safety. The fight went 15 rounds and Ali won a
decision.
Norton would come back the next year
to win an eliminator against Jimmy Young and was declared champion by
the WBC when Leon Spinks was stripped of the title after deciding to
fight Ali in a rematch instead of defending his new title against the
mandatory challenger.
Norton was badly injured in a near fatal car accident in 1986. He recovered but never regained his full physical mobility.
"The
doctors said I would never walk or talk," Norton said at an autograph
session in 2011 in Las Vegas, lifting his trademark fedora to show long
surgical scars on his bald head.
Ken Norton Jr. was a star linebacker at UCLA who played 13 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers in the NFL.
Kilroy
said Norton was visited at the veteran's hospital in the Las Vegas
suburb of Henderson by former fighters, including Mike Tyson, Earnie
Shavers and Thomas Hearns.
Norton fought only
five more times after losing his title to Holmes. His final fight came
Nov. 5, 1981, when he was knocked out in the first round by Gerry Cooney
at Madison Square Garden.
