Q&A: Former heavyweight champion Ken NortonUpdated 10/26/2009 9:02 PM | This content is protected This content is protected By J. Michael Falgoust, USA TODAY This content is protected overcame This content is protected on March 31, 1973, scoring a historic upset in San Diego. The retired Marine with a limited amateur background eventually earned a share of the heavyweight championship, induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 and a statue in his honor for his work with developmentally disabled people in Jacksonville, Ill., his birthplace. Now 66, after a near-fatal car accident in 1986 and overcoming two strokes and a heart attack over the summer, Norton bounces back with Believe: Journey from Jacksonville from 1st World Publishing, which goes on sale Tuesday at This content is protected He talked with USA TODAY's J. Michael Falgoust this month: Why a book, why now? "The money (laughs). … It's about me and boxing and my life. You can't separate it. A lot of it has to do with (after his car wreck in 1986) and to get where I'm at right now. They said I wouldn't walk or talk again. I didn't listen.… I didn't want to accept it. If God had wanted me, he would've taken me." You didn't have a lot of amateur experience and you were brought in as an opponent — to lose — to Ali in 1973. Did you envision that not only you'd win, but that you'd be so revered today as a boxing great for the sport's greatest era of heavyweights? "I never thought of the future. I thought I was very lucky. Each day I tried to do something better than the day before. Doing that, I've grown to be a better man, a more intelligent man and a stronger person." You hurt Ali with a right hand in the second round, which is supposedly when his jaw was broken. You don't believe it happened that early, correct? "I don't know. I don't think it was broken that early. I think it was broken in the 11th round because he was very physical up until that point. Then in the 11th, he started backing up." You solicited the help of a hypnotist, too, to help prepare you for Ali's psychological warfare? "That's accurate. My manager thought it would be a good thing. I think it helped because it gave me more of a positive feeling. My trainer This content is protected thought it would be good. They brainwashed me until I thought it was good.… Eddie Futch contributed so much. He told me everything I'd have to do to win." What was the biggest change after that win? "The amount of money I could earn for fighting. The individuals that I could fight. And also, it made me mentally feel I could fight with anybody in the ring." When is the last time you saw Muhammad in person? "Two years ago. I see his daughters regularly. They live in L.A. My daughter hangs out with one of his daughters. In fact, the last time I saw one of his daughters was (last) Sunday." Where did the physique come from? In those days, athletes were chiseled like you? "It was more genetics. I played football. I ran track. I played basketball in high school. I never lifted weights."
