I didn't know that Ken Norton was also an actor

He was in a film with Mancini too.

 

Alot of Boxers end up in film post career, lots of benefits that come with fame

Baer, Carnera, Tyson, Robinson, Marciano, Ali, Willard, Frazier, etc all have cameos or roles in a movie or two

Even lesser known guys like Colley Wallace and Tony Burton find their way in there

 

I think it was in Mandingo the actress later claimed that when they were up close and personal doing a sex scene Ken said lets do it for real LOL

 

Interesting how Norton looks a little soft here, with body fat well above ten percent. He was apparently "off season," because he was a shredded 225 for the Holmes fight three years later.

 

George is actually pretty good actor. I heard somewhere that Ali planned to become an actor after retiring, and if not for the Parkinson's syndrome I could easily picture that.

 

I wonder why Oscar Delahoya never tried acting

 

I always wondered what Vitali Klitscho would look like in a James Bond movie. He’s a kickboxer too .

 

Ken Norton made Mandingo and Drum after he lost to George Foreman. He thought his career as a boxer was over (because everyone thought Foreman was going to reign for a while).

The movie Mandingo actually was SLAMMED by critics who found it incredibly racist. Roger Ebert wrote a famous and blistering review. Rumors were it was one reason why the studio refused to let Ken Norton play Apollo Creed in the first Rocky movie.

Stallone said he wanted Norton originally but then claimed they didn't hire him because Norton was TOO BIG. But the backlash over Mandingo was pretty high at the time.

That said, Stallone DID hire a Norton opponent (Pedro Lovell) to play Rocky's opponent in the opening scene of the movie and Lovell was bigger than Norton. So the "Norton was too big" excuse doesn't exactly ring true.

The Studio also cut scenes where black fighters in the gym were angry at Rocky because they thought he only got a title shot because he was white. The studio didn't want any race problems with the film.

Ali was also very upset with Norton's appearance in Mandingo. Before their 1976 fight, at the public press conference, he slammed Norton for being naked in an X-rated movie with a white woman. (Norton had a sex scene with the lead actress and the whole backside of him was shown.) And said a heavyweight champion should never appear naked in a movie. That it was an embarrassment.

 

Norton was retired at the time. It was after the Foreman fight. He thought George was going to be the champ forever, and he never wanted to fight George again.

 

i seen foreman fighting WITH steve austin against a group of heavies in a ring in The Six Million Dollar Man

 

With a prime Susan George? I dont blame him. She was 1 fine looking woman