Ken Norton
Encyclopedia : K : KE : KEN : Ken Norton
Kenneth Howard Norton was a heavyweight boxer from Jacksonville, Illinois. He was born on August 9, 1943. Ken was an outstanding athlete at Jacksonville High School. His track coach entered Ken in eight events and Ken placed first in five events, and second in three. 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.
Norton started boxing when he was in the United States Marine Corps. He turned professional in 1967. In 1973, Norton fought Muhammad Ali. Norton broke Ali's jaw in the early rounds and went on to win by a split decision. Six months later, Ali avenged the defeat when he beat Norton by a split decision. However, some felt Norton did enough to win the rematch.
In 1974, Norton fought George Foreman for the World Heavyweight Championship, and was stopped in two rounds. Two years later, Norton received another title shot against Ali in their third fight. Many have felt this was the beginning of Ali's decline as a boxer and he should have not accepted the fight. The scorecards had Norton winning six of the first eight rounds and comfortably ahead. Ali won the ninth and tenth rounds, lost the eleventh and took the next three. In one of the closest fights in history, the fight was even going into the final frame. Famed referee Arthur Mercante, who was the third man in the ring, felt Norton was the victim of bad advice from his corner who told him to "take it easy" the last round while Ali's trainer told him to go out and fight like hell.
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 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.
Norton remains unique among all heavyweight champions, as he is still the only holder of a World Heavyweight Championship to have never won a single world title fight.
In 1981, Norton retired after getting knocked out in one round by Gerry Cooney. He had a record of 42-7-1. Norton went on to act in motion pictures until suffering injuries in an auto accident which resulted in temporary brain and permanent physical damage.
Norton is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame. His son, Ken Norton Jr, played American football in the NFL.
|- style="text-align: center;"
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.