Who knows, but he's claiming they made up a tall tale to excuse the loss. Good little video This content is protected
I think Ken would have known that, he was in the ring with Ali, and must have felt the jaw break. Also the reaction by Ali must have told him so, a broken jaw must hurt really bad.
Eddie Futch said afterwards he thought it was in the third or fourth round. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VPYjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9FMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5053,7406574
You could say Ali was only claiming an earlier round to make himself sound tougher. But at the same time, you could flip it around and say Norton doesn't want his victory "tainted" by beating an opponent who had a severe injury. I don't get why Norton would object since he was the cause of the injury and it wasn't an illegal punch nor did Ali have some sort of issue before the bout started. It's no different from causing a legitimate cut that leads to your opponent getting stopped. Doesn't take anything away from your win as long as there wasn't foul play leading up to the cut.
I have always thought it obvious that the Ali camp would favor the idea of the 2nd round cuz that takes much of the blame for Ali's lousy performance and loss of him and instead makes him look tough for lasting 10 rounds w/ a busted jaw. Of course, if one favors the Norton camp, they would prefer that it be said Ali's jaw was broken in the final round, thus making it a fully legitimate defeat of Ali as well as a potentially great display of Norton's power. The question is, who does one believe? I do not hold one or the other as more credible in this instance, but the 2nd round was not a particularly active one on either man's part, but Norton had Ali reeling in the last 2 rounds, which seems to fit the story more. I do recall that Ali's face didn't start to bleed until the 6th, which further makes a decision more difficult. However, I believe Ali's jaw was broken either in the 11th or 12th.
