Sport
Ken Norton, former boxing heavyweight champion dies at 70
Ken Norton at the 16th annual Keep Memory Alive “Power of Love Gala” and 70th birthday celebration for Muhammad Ali, February 18, 2012. PHOTO/Reuters
Former boxing champion Ken Norton, considered one of the greatest heavyweights of his era, died of a heart attack, his manager said. He was 70.
Norton was best known for beating Muhammad Ali in 1973, breaking the Hall of Famer’s jaw in the process.
Norton passed away Wednesday afternoon at an Arizona care facility, said friend and manager Patrick Tenore. “His wife called me and said Ken had passed away,” Tenore told AFP.
“I saw him a few days ago. His mind was always clear but his speech was impeded since the car accident in Los Angeles.”
Norton, who suffered a stroke last year, ended his brilliant career with a record of 42 wins, seven losses, one draw and 33 knockouts. He fought in the 1970s era of magnificent heavyweights – a group that also included Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Leon Spinks and Jimmy Young.
“They called us handsome. Muhammad they called pretty. But the fairest of them all Ken Norton,” Foreman wrote on his Twitter page Wednesday. “What a loss to all of us.”
Other tributes also quickly poured in for Norton, who was once given the title of the “Father of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times in 1977.
