Muhammad Ali vs Ken Norton 3

Venue: Yankee Stadium, New York. 28th September, 1976.

Muhammad Ali was no longer a god: he still looked the same, but his physical gifts were diminishing. Richard Dunn would be the last opponent he ever put on the canvas. Robbed of much of his power, with his speed in decline and his great love of training on the want, Ali had become reliant on his ringcraft and his ability to take the punishment to win fight. Now he faced the man who, after Frazier, had claim to be his most difficult opponent – ken Norton. Each of their previous fights had been close and Ali knew a third scrap would prove a severe test, but it was a test he was paid $6m to take. Ali prepared as well as he could. He would need to be fit: in their first encounter, Norton had been unseasoned. Now he had added a fine defence to his aggression.

Muhammad Ali vs Ken Norton

Events surrounding the fight were chaotic. Strike action by New York’s police meant the Yankee stadium was host to a rough crowd. The fighters were jostled on the way to the ring, a herald to an uncomfortable night for the champ.

Norton controlled the first half and after seven rounds, was comfortably ahead. Ali, with his accumulated experience, began to work his way back in stealing rounds with bursts of effort and spoiling Norton’s attacks. From the ninth until the fourteenth, he lost just one round. With the referee, Arthur Mercante snr, and two ringside judges scoring, the fighters answered the final bell dead level. Mercante remembered Angelo Dundee exhorting Ali to give everything in the final three minutes; they felt he needed the round to win. Norton’s corner, though, thought they were further ahead than they were. Their advice was to keep out of trouble.

It was to prove fatal to Norton’s chances. Ali took the 15th and with it the fight. Norton was distraught-he was the fitter man and had the reserves to outpunch Ali in the final throes, but had held back.

Somehow, Ali had found a way through, his instinctive understanding of what was required to win maintained his unsteadyhold on the championship.

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