My thoughts on Ken Norton . . .

By Rick Farris

I saw Ken Norton for the first time in 1968, when he made his L.A. debut with a KO of Cornell Nolan.
Norton was unbeaten, and Nolan was his sixth consecutive victory, fifth by KO.
Norton's next four fights would also be in L.A. and he'd win all by KO.

More than two years into his pro career, Ken Norton is unbeaten, 15-0 (14 KO's).
To some, Norton was a God, a physical specimen who could punch. I'd see Norton training under Bill Slayton, at the Main Street Gym and he often was impressive. However, I'm a hard critic of heavyweights of the era. I was also a tad prejudiced in favor of my stablemate, Jerry Quarry.

I always wanted Jerry to win, thruout his career, prime and long past prime. I knew all of the idiosincracies the made up Jerry Quarry. At times the sum total of those "quirks" created a devistating heavyweight contender during one of the toughest heavyweight eras in boxing history.

With guys like Ali and Frazier around, Jerry Quarry would never be a heavyweight champion.
With guys like Frazier and Foreman around, a guy like Ken Norton should have never been a champ, either.
But Norton had something few others had, and that was Muhammad Ali's number. Ali never beat him, in my mind.
Norton's poison was a hard puncher. I saw Quarry put him to sleep in a late 60's sparring session, and drop him with a body shot in another.
The Jerry Quarry that Ken Norton stopped in 1975, wasn't the Jerry that faced and flattened Earnie Shavers more than two years previous.
At the time, Jerry's most common sparring partner was cocaine. He was spiritually shot as a fighter, and he retired after Norton stopped him.

However, lets go back five years before Norton faced Jerry Quarry in the ring. Norton is unbeaten, as I mentioned above, and the 6'3", 27-year-old physical specimen is going to fight a 6'2", 188 pounder from Venezuela, Jose Luis Garcia. Manager Willie Ketchum was touting Garcia as a threat to Norton. Few believed it.

I was scheduled to fight my second pro match on the undercard, but my opponent never showed up at the weigh-in, so I was just a spectator that night. I was with my girlfriend, talking with people at ringside, when Norton hit the deck early in the fight. Suddenly my attention went right to the ring. Within the next few rounds, Garcia would floor Kenny three more times, ending matters for good in the eighth round. Afterwards, I told of how Jerry had KOed Norton in the gym. The bubble had been burst by a South American light-heavy.

Three years later Norton would redeem himself, and make his mark on history. He not only handed Ali his second loss, he broke the Greatest's jaw in the process.

Even with his dominance of Muhammad in all three matches, I never saw Kenny Norton in the same light as Ali, Foreman, Frazier, or Quarry. I likened him to a Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers level contender. You know, just a few french fries short of a happy meal in the overall scope of heavyweight boxing during the era.

How ironic that today I would love to see just one heavyweight with half the talent of Ken Norton.
How things change.