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Throughout his incomparable ring career, the one and only Muhammad Ali always, always had nothing but trouble with one particular fighter and his \u201cawkward\u201d style. This was Ken Norton, whom Ali fought three times in the 1970s, with each fight going all the way to the judges\u2019 scorecards.<\/p>\n
Ali, it\u2019s fair to say, never once comprehensively defeated Norton; the three fights were all desperately close affairs, with the final fight being viewed by many as highly controversial. It was 50 years ago today when Ali and Norton met for the final time.<\/p>\n
The fight took place inside a sold-out Yankee Stadium in New York, with richer fans shelling out a then quite enormous $200 for a ringside seat. The fight proved memorable, the scoring in particular. For once again, Norton, with his great physical strength and stamina, his counter-punching ability and his unusual cross-armed defense, gave the great Ali fits. Back when the two legends met the first time, in March of 1973, a then-unknown Norton broke Ali\u2019s jaw and won a 12-round split decision. Ali, when his jaw had mended, blamed poor training and a lack of respect for his foe for the loss. Ali trained perhaps as hard as he ever did ahead of the rematch. The sequel was another tough affair for both men, with Ali this time edging Norton via split decision. It would be three years before the two met in the rubber-match, with Ali\u2019s world title on the line.<\/p>\n
However, by September of 1976, Ali really should have been retired. The great man had shocked the world \u2013 again \u2013 by regaining the crown from an \u201cinvincible\u201d George Foreman, but Joe Frazier had taken too much from Ali in their brutal Manila trilogy, and Ali\u2019s legs, reflexes and internal organs had been suffering ever since. Norton \u2013 who had bounced back after being crushed by Foreman in a March 1974 world title challenge \u2013 had won seven fights in a row. Now set to face Ali with the title on the line for the first time, the former Marine was in absolutely tip-top shape.<\/p>\n
Ali approached his third date with the trickiest, most unsolvable opponent of his career with a grim determination. Still, Ali was in full form vocally, with \u201cNorton must fall\u201d being the champion\u2019s mantra. But was Ali trying to convince himself? In truth, Ali had to know there was very little chance of him knocking out Norton, a man he had never come close to putting on the canvas.<\/p>\n
And so the fight raged on. Norton, again never once hurt by Ali, did what he had done in fights one and two. Norton seemed to have an innate ability when it came to timing Ali, his jab especially.<\/p>\n
Ali really did try everything he could to unnerve Norton in the third fight. Ali danced, for as long as he could manage before fatigue intervened; he rope-a-doped, and Ali talked constantly, hurling insults at Norton. But at one point, having been doubled over by a nasty Norton body shot, Ali had to dig down into his inner reserves. It was all up for grabs going into the final round, but then Norton\u2019s corner made a terrible decision. Norton\u2019s corner instructed their warrior not to take any chances, that he was ahead and needed only to hear the final bell.<\/p>\n
Ali used every ounce of strength and guile he had left, and he won the final round. This clinched Ali the fight. Ali, looking embarrassed in mid-ring, saw his challenger break into tears. All these years later, the fight and its decision are often debated, with most fans and historians feeling that, yes, Norton did win the fight. But Ali was the true King of the Ring, and his enormous reputation and ability to win over the scoring officials perhaps won him this fight more than anything else. One thing is certain: Joe Frazier aside, nobody ever tested Ali\u2019s mettle as severely as Norton did.<\/p>\n
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About the authorJames Slater<\/p>\n
James Slater is a senior boxing journalist at Boxing247.com (formerly East Side Boxing) and has covered the sport for more than two decades. Known for his deep expertise, he reports on breaking news, conducts fighter interviews, and delivers authoritative perspective on boxing\u2019s past and present.<\/p>\n
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Boxing<\/a> \u2022 Boxing News<\/a> \u2022 50 Years Ago Today: Muhammad Ali Vs. Ken Norton III \u2013 The Rubber-Match At Yankee Stadium<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout his incomparable ring career, the one and only Muhammad Ali always, always had nothing but trouble with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-913557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}