The 50th anniversary of the fight in which Muhammad Ali boxed 12 rounds with a broken jaw! Who was the second executioner of his career?

Today is the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s second fall in his stellar career. Ken Norton broke his jaw in the second round, but he still boxed the full twelve rounds and showed what an exceptional boxer he was.

Muhammad Ali changed the lives of many fighters

The year was 1973 and Muhammad Ali was trying to get back on a winning streak after his incredible loss to Joe Frazier in the Fight of the Century. He was quite successful in doing so and had racked up ten straight wins since that memorable defeat.

This year, the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) decided to hold a title fight between Ali and Ken Norton, who was pulling a streak of 13 straight wins. Norton was a gifted athlete from a young age, starting out with American football, but fate brought him between the sixteen ropes.

Norton came from a poor family and although he experienced much success in boxing, he did not have much money. When his wife left him, he was left with a son he could barely support. “One day I called my father to see if I could come to his house. But he told me that if he helped me now, he would help me for the rest of my life. Be a real man,” Norton recalled of the hard times.

But they shaped his career as a professional boxer and just a year later he was fighting the legendary Ali, who changed his life. “Fighting Ali gave me a chance to buy my son more food, better clothes. Fighting Ali gave me a chance at life.”

Ken Norton silenced Ali and broke his jaw

In their March 31, 1973 clash, Norton surprised everyone from the opening rounds. He certainly didn’t handle the legend with kid gloves and pushed himself with extra fast jabs.

The amazing tactics he used to dismantle his opponent were the work of Norton’s trainer Eddie Futch, who spotted a gap in Ali’s wrestling and took advantage of Norton’s greatest asset, speed and amazing body deception.

Then in the second round, Norton landed a hard right hook that, according to Ali and his corner, broke the iconic boxer’s jaw. The fracture was not discovered by Ali until after the fight at the hospital and therefore no one knows exactly when the injury happened. However, the visibly shaken legend pulled the short rope in the first half of the fight and it took him seven rounds to begin to assert himself.

In fact, the second half of the match Ali was able to assert himself from a greater distance. Quick strikes and retreats have graced his fights throughout his career and Ali finally began to take the reins. But in the last round, Norton again landed a hard right that he said was the shot that broke his opponent’s jaw.

We will never know the truth, however, the judges’ scoring after a twelve round war decided that Ken Norton was the winner of the duel. Thanks to his opponent’s injury, he became only his second executioner and the first man to silence him. ” Muhammad Ali silenced! ” The butterfly has lost its wings, the bee has lost its sting.

Although he lost his next two fights, he has respect and reverence for the legend

Although Ali managed to beat Norton twice in the following years, no one can erase the legend’s defeat. Anyone expecting Norton to hate his opponent would be wrong. When he crashed his car at the age of 43, he lost his memory for five years.

Ali showed his greatness and went to visit his former rival in the hospital and that was not the only way he earned his respect. “Being in the same ring with Muhammad Ali was an honour, saving my life and my career all in one. I can’t thank him enough for the chance he gave me.”

Source: Wikipedia, Youtube channels – freethinker2012 and The Modern Martial Artist