FIRST STORY OF WEEK LONG SERIES: “PEDRO & BOXING GREATS”
Referee Arthur Mercante, Ali & Norton III
San Francisco, CA– Having profound memories of some of boxing’s greatest warriors is something I hold dear to my heart and in this week-long series of personal stories here at RingTalk.com we give you an inside look at Muhammad Ali, considered by some, including himself, the greatest heavyweight to ever lace up the gloves. “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, Ken Norton, or are my buddy Howard Cosell to referred to him, “Kenny Norton.” Last but not least, I go back into the cerebral storage center towards the end of the week and remember Manny Pacquiao, before the money, fame, political office and his fervor for an extreme version of Christianity.
ALI, NORTON, GEORGE, LARRY, PEDRO!
The Muhammad Ali reference I will make today involves Ken Norton. But before I get started, let me set the stage for you. Here was Ali, Norton, and if my memory serves me correctly, George Foreman and Larry Holmes, myself and promoter Harold Smith all in a “green room” of sorts in Sacramento, CA as a car dealership executive (who would be fired because of this event) brought everybody in with offers of cash, rooms, foods, drink, and oh, more, if you get my drift. Doing some radio from the event, it was one of those gigs where you know that there’s a 60-40 chance that your check was going to bounce, so enjoy things while you can.
MUHAMMAD ALI QUIET SOMETIMES, NOT OTHERS!
Having toured with Ali in ’93 & ’94 through Asia, he could talk a bunch one day and then be seemingly mute for two turns of the calendar. That is said to have depended on his intake of medication, the timing, etc. But Ali was well…Ali and he played tricks, talked smack at times, albeit with great effort, and the guy you see playing around as a young Cassius Clay, well essentially that was still Muhammad Ali in the 1990s, although slower and at times struggling.
FILET MIGNON BUFFET RAVAGED
Munching on an assortment of catered food, I’m just watching these great fighters just looking at one another and not saying much. Mortified, I was thinking to myself, this may be the last time these guys are ever together in one place, and there’s really no banter between them as we await an autograph signing session. Just then, the most prolific speaker of the 1960s, outside of President John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, now hampered by Parkinson’s Syndrome and other ailments both associated and unassociated with boxing, set the record straight like only Ali could.
STIRRING THE POT & GETTING A REACTION!
While I’m not trying to imply that Holmes, Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Norton were not talking, but there was nothing of note going around that would make for a feature story or article until it got so quiet that you could hear a mouse pee on a wad of cotton in the furthest corner of the room when Muhammad says in not of his most powerful oratories, but maybe one of the most significant while looking Norton in the eye said. ”That last fight champ, I think you got the better of it.”
FOR NORTON THE CONFESSION WAS HEART-WRENCHING
A tough guy on the exterior, I always thought Ken Norton was a blockhead ex-Marine when he turned out to be just a man who because of the aura of Ali never got his props, Ken’s eyes watered up as he and Ali hugged. This is what Ken Norton lived for as it was better to him than winning the lottery. He had heard it directly from Ali himself! This remains one of my most poignant boxing memories. In closing, the car dealership guy ended up costing the company like $120,000 as the event tanked and was fired shortly thereafter. Tomorrow Joe Frazier: Disrespected Champion.
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Pedro Fernandez
Pedro Fernandez