Ken Norton, Sr., a former heavyweight champion boxer best remembered for beating Muhammad Ali in a 1973 fight in which he broke Mr. Ali's jaw, passed away from heart failure on Wednesday at age 70.
Mr. Norton had been in ill health in recent years, as he had suffered a series of strokes.
It was in a 1973 bout in San Diego that Kenny broke Muhammad's jaw and handed the former (and future) champ only his second career defeat.
The twosome met again six months in a rematch that Mr. Ali won by split decision.
The third bout between Kenny and Muhammad, which took place at New York's Yankee Stadium in 1976, which Mr. Ali won by a narrow decision to keep his heavywight championship (which he had reclaimed two years earlier after he defeated George Foremen in Zaire).
After having won a heavyweight title elimination bout in 1977, Mr. Norton was declared World Boxing Council heavyweight champion in 1978 after Leon Spinks, who defeated Muhammad Ali early that year, wanted a rematch with Mr. Ali, instead of the WBC's mandatory challenger (Muhammad got the better of Leon in the rematch).
Kenny's reign as WBC champ was brief before losing a brutal 15-round title bout to Larry Holmes on June 9, 1978 and never won the heavyweight title again.
Kenny's son, Ken Norton, Jr., was a talented collegiate linebacker at UCLA before embarking on a successful NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. Ken, Jr. is now an assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks.
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