I always thought Norton was intelligent, articulate..hell he had a good vocabulary...as Howard Cosell was interviewing him after the Mar. '73 broken jaw victory over Ali, he asked Norton something roughly like "what was the key to your victory" and Norton replied, among other things, that he followed Eddie Futch's instructions "implicitly".."IMPLICITLY..for gosh's sakes!!!! Hve you ever heard a fighter, or an athlete, period...ever utter that word? That was impressive to me...not as impressive as the victory over Ali, but he just struck me as being an intelligent guy, that's all.
Oh, if he did, that's not a guarantee of a good vocabulary, good diction that he had...he never stooped to ebonics, or whatever was the equivalevt in the early 70's...he seemed to have it all...except a chin against a bomber, that is.
Here's the chapter in "Facing Ali" on Norton... gives a good picture of him post-boxing and in how he dealt with the Ali fights. (A couple of pages are missing as it's really a "preview", but still very useful.) http://books.google.ca/books?id=BKD...6PzTCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
He seemed a decent man like Frazier. I still think the decision against Norton in his third fight with Ali was the biggest robbery EVER! You almost want to cry for him after seeing him school Ali for the whole fight only to be ripped off by the corrupt judging.
His book is good and he's going to be in Facing Ali. A likable guy who, other than the Ali losses, never really made excuses for the early KO's from Shavers, Foreman, and Cooney.
He seems like a cool guy. I'd say he's classier than Larry Holmes by a long shot. When Holmes and NOrton fought, I recall (from tapes) that Holmes seemed to go out of his way to antagonize and try to intimidate NOrton. Holmes just seems to always have a stick up his you know what, even way back in the 70's. Although I do admire Holmes' overall honesty and fighting talent.....But for Norton, what a fine physical specimen he was. And he wasn't a weight lifter back then....That's amazing!
If Norton could get along well with somebody so sensitive and touchy like Frazier .... well, that speaks volumes on how cool was Kenny
I used to workout at his Gold's Gym he jokingly offered to give me boxing lessons after he noticed a large black eye on my face. Whats real funny I had no clue who he was until I saw a pic of him with other heavyweight champs on the wall
Frazier gets on perfectly fine with Foreman and Holmes too. (I wonder what unites them?:huh) It seems as long as his intellectual ability wasn't questioned,he's quite amiable around his former opponents and sparring partners.
Norton is a bright man. He was doing very well financially in business out of boxing until his accident ... now due to the accident his speech is slurred but not from the fight game. Norton has plenty of reason to be pissed as he was so badly robbed of victory in the third Ali bout but he never took it out on Ali ... Norton and Holmes really disliked each other for a long time ... Norton could be a bit arrogant and Holmes had a huge chip on his shoulder ... the difference is that Holmes voiced itin his book while Norton tried to be a bit smoother in his ...
I'm not sure if this is fact or not but I seem to recall that he was estranged from his son (the NFL'er) for a time. Anyone know about this?