Ken Norton Interview (Thoughts)

Well, I hope the interviewer didn't spend time just asking Norton about Muhammad Ali.

Every question here was about Ali.

The most fascinating part was Norton saying he was talking to Bob Foster and Foster told him Ken could beat Ali, and then Ken running into Ali at the bar afterward - which the interviewer should've asked him to elaborate on because there's good stuff in there. (LOL). Maybe more questions about the nearly 50 other opponents he faced, or his relationships with other boxers, or memorable things that happened on cards he fought on, or his first title fight with Foreman, or his work with Frazier, or the downward slide of his career after Holmes. Something. Some anecdotes. A little color.

The rest of the questions were all, How'd you score your first fight with Ali? How'd you score your second fight with Ali? How'd you score your third fight with Ali? Isn't Ali awesome? How strong is Ali?

Some of the more interesting things in boxing books are the little side stories boxers talk about themselves. Or random observations that add color. In a Mark Kram book on Ali, I remember him talking about Manila when Ali went golfing with President Marcos, and the president's wife had a crush on Ali, and during the golf Marcos was shooting flamingos that wandered on the golf course ... as like a not-so-subtle threat to Ali not to **** his wife. (LOL) Like "I'm the boss here. I can do what I want." Or the fact that when Ali's team basically carried him back to the dressing room after the war with Frazier, they passed a dead policemen whose brains were blown out and sprayed all over the wall outside their dressing room. Stories like that add to the chaos of the event.

 

It was said that he probably hated Larry Holmes for not giving him a rematch or something like that.

 

They were actually good friends. Larry has said nothing but glowing things about Ken.

 

Larry Holmes is a great human being, i'm not sure if Kenny considered him as an enemy, but it should be noted he was a bit mad at Holmes for not giving him a rematch.
He wrote in his own book going the distance things like:
“One thing with Ali, he would always give you a rematch. Larry would not take the risk.”
"Had I faced him when i was 30, the way i did Ali, I would have knocked Holmes out.”

 

WHOA MAJOR SCHOOLING! I had no idea, thanks my friend!

 

The Holmes rematch, as I recall, was basically all but signed. At least one of the magazines ran a preview of it. They got past their first tuneups: Holmes over Evangelista and Norton over Stephens. All they had to do was get past their second tuneups (albeit more challenging tuneups): Holmes against Jimmy Young (oops, Ossie Ocasio) and Norton against Shavers. I liked Norton, but he sorta blew it for himself, going 1-1-1 in between losing to Holmes in 1978 and the proposed September 1979 Holmes-Norton rematch.

 

Kenny Norton was a credit to boxing. A class act. An intelligent, skillful fighter who used his noodle. He fought alot of good fighters. Based purely on what went on in the ring he one of the greats. He won the series vs Ali and the Holmes bout was so close, could have went either way. He was the champion but didn't get the benefit of the close verdict.

What I like about Ken is that he never held this stuff personally against Ali or even Holmes. Ali and Norton were good friends. Their competition healthy. The way it should be.

Count me a Kenny Norton fan.

PS
If you read what he overcame from that car accident it will move you to tears. He was a champion in and out of the boxing ring.

 

Dream on.
I was at the 3rd fight,
Boring fight.
Ali won,
Norton did very little.

 

Ah.

 

I love Kenny! Thanks for you kind words. Thanks also to the thread creator. He deserves all the respect. I remember George Foreman said about Ken: "He was the fairest and the most sincere of all".

 

Norton seems like a classy guy from everything I’ve read. However the first fight he won square, the second fight was close but belonged to Muhammad.

The third fight is up in the air and most think Norton won which I agree with however it gets overlooked how much Ali was gone by then and people act as if Norton beat great versions of Muhammad he beat an out of shape Ali who was looking past him once, He officially lost to him in the rematch and to a shot Ali these are facts.

Now without Ali- Norton has no great wins at all. Not a single one so the weight of his ranking rests on his *wins* over Muhammad.

 

His win over Jimmy Young was solid

 

If you watch it sober you might have a different opinion.

 

Ali was certainly past it but he was the Heavyweight Champion. As you acknowledged. What happens in the ring is all that counts. We saw it with our eyes. Norton did what he was supposed to do. As Kenny said in the interview "Ali was bigger than boxing at that time".

 

You are an ******* !!!