Following his close decision loss to Muhammad Ali on September 30, 1976, Ken Norton took a little break from the ring. His comeback bout was on May 11, 1977 at Madison Square Garden in New York against Duane Bobick. Bobick had been a successful amateur, and came into the contest with an undefeated record of 38-0.
I tuned into the fight on my little black and white tv in my bedroom to watch the NBC broadcast, with Dick Enberg calling the action. I didn’t know much about Bobick, but he almost seemed a sympathetic figure to me, with a constant sad look on his face. I couldn’t help but want to root for him.
The end came quickly for him however, when a Norton right hand hit him in the throat, almost gagging him. An avalanche of blows followed, and the end came at 58 seconds in the first round. It had turned out to be a dud, and for all intensive purposes, it ended Bobick’s career. He would continue on fighting, but would lose two significant ones, and by the summer of 1979, he was gone,
Norton had a boost to his career, and moved forward with new found enthusiasm in his quest for another title shot. With Ali fading fast, he figured he just might get one.
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