Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, Ken Norton, is dead.
The late pugilist, who fought Muhammad Ali three times, died on
Wednesday in a care facility, after suffering congestive heart failure.
He was aged 70.
His death was confirmed by his son Ken Jr.
Norton won the first fight against Ali on a 12-round split decision
on March 31, 1973, to capture the North American Boxing Federation
heavyweight title. He broke Ali’s jaw in the bout.
He was the second man to defeat Ali in a professional fight after Joe
Frazier, who won a 15-round unanimous decision against ‘The Greatest’
on March 8, 1971.
Like Frazier, he would later lose two other fights against Ali.
Commenting on the first fight between the two, Gene Kilroy, Norton’s
former manager, said Norton visited Ali at the hospital where he was
having his jaw rewired. He claimed that Ali said he never wanted to
fight Norton again.
However, six months later both would square off at the Forum in
Inglewood, California where Ali avenged the March 31st loss on a split
decision.
The third fight would come three years later at the Yankee Stadium in
New York City. Ali won but the result was one of the most contested in
boxing history. Many analysts believed Norton should have won the fight.
The ‘Jawbreaker’ -– a named he bagged after the first bout against
Ali -– before his retirement in 1981, won 42 fights (33 by knockout),
lost seven times and fought one draw.
After his retirement, he went into acting, making more than a dozen
television and film appearances, including the 1975 movie ‘Mandingo’.
He most recently appeared onscreen in the 2008 film ‘The Man Who Came Back’.
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