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Ken Norton
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Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. (born August 9 1943, Jacksonville, Illinois) is a former multi-time world champion heavyweight boxer.
on was an outstanding athlete at Jacksonville High School. His track coach entered him in eight events and Ken placed first in all. As a result, the "Ken Norton Rule" was instituted in Illinois high school sports which limits participation of an athlete to a maximum of three track and field events.
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Encyclopedia
Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. (born August 9 1943, Jacksonville, Illinois) is a former multi-time world champion heavyweight boxer.
Early Years
Norton was an outstanding athlete at Jacksonville High School. His track coach entered him in eight events and Ken placed first in all. As a result, the "Ken Norton Rule" was instituted in Illinois high school sports which limits participation of an athlete to a maximum of three track and field events. After graduating from high school, Norton went to Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) on a football scholarship.
Boxing Career
Norton started boxing when he was in the United States Marine Corps from 1963-1967, compiling a 24-2 record en route to three All-Marine Heavyweight titles. Following the National AAU finals in 1967, he turned professional.
After he suffered his first boxing defeat at the hands of Jose Luis Garcia in 1970, Norton was given the motivational book Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which he states in his autobiography, Going the Distance, changed his life. Upon reading it he went went on a fourteen fight winning streak, including a shocking victory over Muhammad Ali in 1973 to win the NABF Heavyweight Crown.
Championship Fights
Norton won a split-decision victory over Muhammad Ali in his home town of San Diego in 1973. Early in the fight he broke Ali's jaw, leading to only the second defeat for "The Greatest" in his career. Six months later, Ali avenged the loss when he beat Norton by a split decision.
In 1974, Norton fought George Foreman for the World Heavyweight Championship, and was stopped in two rounds.
In 1975, Norton regained the NABF Heavyweight Title when he defeated Jerry Quarry by TKO in the fifth round. Norton then avenged his above-mentioned 1970 loss to Jose Luis Garcia by knocking-out Garcia in round five. In 1976, Norton successfully defended his NABF Heavyweight Title three times, stopping Pedro Lovell (TKO 5), Ron Stander (TKO 5) and Larry Middleton (TK0 10).
In 1976 Norton would again fight Ali, who was now the World Heavyweight Champion since regaining the title with a eighth round kayo of George Foreman in 1974. Many observers have felt this was the beginning of Ali's decline as a boxer. 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 and judges' scorecards to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. The judges scored the bout 8-7 for Ali and the referee scored it 8-6 for Ali. At the time of the third Ali-Norton bout, the last time a heavyweight champion lost the title by decision was Max Baer to Jim Braddock and thirty-one years later Ali-Norton III was no exception. The January 1998 issue of Boxing Monthly listed Ali-Norton as the fifth most disputed title fight decision in boxing history. The unofficial UPI scorecard was 8-7 for Norton, and the unofficial AP scorecard was 9-6 for Ali.
Following the Leon Spinks upset of Muhammad Ali for the championship in February 1978, Spinks elected to fight a return bout against Ali rather than face the still dangerous Norton, the top contender. The World Boxing Council, which had mandated a Spinks-Norton bout for their championship, withdrew its recognition of Spinks as champion.
On March 18 1978, the WBC made history by naming Norton its champion without benefit of a title match. The WBC stated that they considered Norton's victory over Jimmy Young, which was sanctioned by the WBC as a title eliminator, a retroactive championship match. Norton wouldn't hold onto the title for very long.
In his first defense of the WBC title, Norton and new #1 contender Larry Holmes met in a classic fight. After 15 brutal rounds, Holmes was awarded the title via an extremely close split decision. The March 2001 edition of The Ring magazine listed the final round of the Holmes-Norton bout as the 7th most exciting round in boxing history. Holmes-Norton is ranked as the 10th greatest heavyweight fight of all time by Monte D. Cox, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO). Holmes went on to become the second longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion in the history of boxing, behind Joe Louis.
Norton remains unique among all heavyweight champions, as he is still the only holder of a World Heavyweight Championship to win a world title fight by a no-contest.
Retirement
Norton retired past his prime in 1981, after being knocked out in one round by Gerry Cooney. He had a career professional record of 42-7-1.
Awards and Recognitions
Ken Norton is a 1989 inductee of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, a 1992 inductee of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame, a 2004 inducteed into the United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame, and a 2008 inductee into the WBC Hall of Fame. The 1998 holiday issue of The Ring ranked Norton # 22 in "The 50 Greatest Heavyweights of All Time." Norton received the Boxing Writers Association of America J. Niel Trophy for "Fighter of the Year" in 1977. Norton has also received the Napoleon Hill Award for positive thinking.
Style
Norton was a forward, pressing fighter who was distinguishable for a unique blocking/coverup style characterised by elbows out to the sides, and one hand above the other (referred to as a crab defense) where most other boxers (for the same given situation) would have elbows in and hands alongside one another.
TV and Film Career
Norton has appeared in approximately twenty motion pictures. The character of "Apollo Creed" in Rocky was initially going to be played by Norton. However, when he pulled out, Carl Weathers was selected. Norton additionally worked as a television and radio sports commentator and appeared in popular TV series, such as jailbird "Jackhammer" Jackson in 'Pros and Cons', an early first-season episode of The A-Team (filmed 1982, broadcast 1983), and as boxer Bo Keeler in the fourth season Knight Rider episode 'Redemption of a Champion' (1986). He continued making such appearances until suffering injuries in an auto accident which resulted in temporary brain and permanent physical damage.
Family
Ken Norton was twice voted "Father of the Year" by the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times. His son, Ken Norton Jr, played American football for UCLA and the NFL. In tribute to his father's boxing career, Ken Jr. would strike a boxing stance in the end zone each time he scored a defensive touchdown and throw a punching combination at the goalpost pad.
Ken Norton is also the father of Keith Norton, a sportscaster for Channel 2 News in Houston, Texas. Following his father's footsteps, Keith served in the United States Marine Corps.
- Autobiography: Going The Distance: The Ken Norton Story
External links
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