“Champions Forever” Publicity Photo
FOUR CHAMPS IN TOWN FOR GALA EVENT!
San Francisco, CA– Any typical California day is not a typical one if retired boxing promoter Harold Smith is involved. That being said, Harold is coming in from Asia on this mid 1990’s morning for an event that a Sacramento, CA auto dealer had put together with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, and Ken Norton. Four champions, a short parade, shaking hands at an autograph signing and a dinner. With the ex-champs signing and posing for paid fans and VIPs, the car dealer would get major free TV plugs as well as print and radio ads.
BUT THE LIVE VIP PARTY WASN’T LIKE STUDIO 54
Maybe it had to do with the fact that the car dealer’s rep, a Latino, who had rolled the dice on the promotion being a success, because it was and it wasn’t! People at the time were not beating down anybody’s doors to buy new cars, nor were there a mass of people who would pay to get a picture with the Fab Four. Still, all four got paid. Reason I know this is Ali didn’t complain afterwards. Larry Holmes and Joe Frazier, you wouldn’t have gotten them their sans money up front. And Ken Norton, he’d still be woofing about it today had he not be paid!
TOUCHING PART OF RING HISTORY WITNESSED
They were going back and forth, Ali, Joe, Ken and Larry. Taking pictures and acting innocently silly, the champions had spent a lot of time around one another. Muhammad Ali spent more time on this one day with Ken Norton and Joe Frazier than they had possibly ever spent prior. Joe was talking a little smack, still angry with Ali, and had in recent years had all but mimicked Ali’s medical condition. There would be no peace between these two men, that would take many more years before Joe would publicly bury the hatchet.
Ali & Frazier At Peace!
HERE’S THE POIGNANT MOMENT FOR FIGHT FANS!
Ali’s relationship with Larry Holmes, never a bad one until promoter Don King put a dilapidated Ali in with him in 1980. Sad as it was, I still feel Larry took it easy on Ali, as least as easy as you can be in beating a man up for ten straight rounds. Everybody knows that all three Ali-Norton fights were close. Ken, breaking Ali’s jaw, won the initial encounter. Ali would win a rematch on points before they both put it on the line in Yankee Stadium, on September 29, 1978. Ken took it to Ali, as was the always the case and seemed to be the better man that night. It came down to the scorecards of referee Arthur Mercante 8-6-1 in rounds for Ali. Judge Harold Lederman & Barney Smith both had Ali up 8-7 in this 15 round fight.
KEN CRIED FOR YEARS ABOUT DECISION
During one last photo op, Ali leans over to Norton and says. “That third fight, I think you got it, champ!” With those words, the weight that came off Norton’s shoulders, hitting the floor so hard it sounded like falling concrete. Ken’s eyes lit up like you wouldn’t believe. Reaching over, grabbing Ali, I thought Norton was suffering from some type of emotional release. Yeah, I know he beat the guy that beat the guy, didn’t get the call, but here was Ali acknowledging the fact that Ken was right all along, he had beaten Ali!
Pedro Fernandez