Before his bout with Joe Bugner in Las Vegas on February 14, 1973, Muhammad Ali met with Elvis Presley in his suite at the International Hilton Hotel. Elvis presented him with a boxing robe with the words “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” embroidered on the back. The $10,000 robe was supposed to say “PEOPLE’S CHAMP”, but the designer made an error. Ali was thrilled with the gift, and promised to wear it into the ring when he fought Bugner. A lifelong friendship between Elvis and Ali was formed, and they remained close until Elvis’ death in August of 1977.
Ali had little problem with Joe Bugner, and won a unanimous 12 round decision in their bout at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ali’s next fight was scheduled for March 31, 1973 at the San Diego Sports Arena, with an up and coming contender named Ken Norton. After their meeting, Norton became a household name.
That Saturday afternoon, I vividly remember striking out 3 times in a spring practice baseball game, and going home feeling down in the dumps. I happened across the Ali-Norton fight on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and it took my mind off my 12 year old problems for a while. Ali was a favorite of mine, and even know I wasn’t a huge boxing fan at the time, I enjoyed watching him in the ring.
Norton was better than people expected, and he was giving Ali all the trouble he could handle. Howard Cosell starting talking about the fact that Ali appeared to have a broken jaw, and it made everything more dramatic. After 12 difficult rounds, Norton was declared the winner, and a huge upset had taken place before my eyes. Ali’s road to a title shot had been derailed, and his mind now was on getting his jaw repaired, resting, and pursuing a rematch with Ken Norton.
The pair agreed to meet again on September 10, 1973 at the Forum in Los Angeles, but the rematch would be shown on closed circuit tv, not free television. Ali admittedly had not trained much for their first bout, but went into seclusion at his training camp at Deer Lake, Pennsylvania for this one. He left camp lighter, and in much better condition, weighing in 9 lbs. lighter at 212 lbs. Norton was in spectacular shape again, and when the first bell rang, Ali had far more to lose than Ken did.
Ali stood between rounds during the fight, was far more active and accurate, but still barely won a close decision. A win was a win however, had dodged a bullet, and could aim for another shot at the title, this time against George Foreman. Foreman had upset Joe Frazier in January of 1973, but chose Norton as his next opponent in March of 1974, despite his loss to Ali.
Muhammad fought once more in 1973, vs. Rudi Lubbers on October 20 in Jakarta, Indonesia and won a 12 round unanimous decision. With Foreman committed to face Ken Norton, Ali settled on a rematch with his old nemesis, Joe Frazier in January of 1974. Even though it wasn’t for the championship, both their futures rode on the outcome.
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