On March 26, 1974, George Foreman defended his heavyweight title against Ken Norton in Caracas, Venezuela. The reason promoter Don King held the bout there was that all taxes would be waived on the fighter’s money, of which Foreman was guaranteed $700,000 and Norton $200,000. I was just a kid at the time and didn’t have anyone to take me to see it on closed-circuit, or I definitely would have loved to have seen it.
George had destroyed Joe Frazier a year earlier in two rounds, and only made one title defense, an easy first round knockout of Jose ‘King’ Roman in Tokyo, Japan. Ken Norton was coming off of two consecutive fights with Muhammad Ali in 1973, the second of which he lost. That didn’t deter Don King from giving him a title shot, but Foreman was still listed as a 3-1 favorite going in.
After an evenly fought first round, George hurt and dropped Ken a minute into the second round, then twice more, the final time ending the massacre. Foreman was powerfully impressive with his performance, making him seen indestructible to any heavyweight willing to fight him.
Muhammad Ali sat ringside at the bout, knowing that he was going to face Foreman next. Ali may have bragged about how he would beat George at the time, but there is no way in the world he wasn’t shocked at the brutality of Foreman’s power. I was certainly surprised when I saw the replay on television of the knockout and wondered if anyone could beat ‘Big George’.
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