Was Ali jaw broken by joe frazier?

Answer 1

Muhammad Ali vs Ken Norton

Venue: Sports Arena, San Diego, California. 31st March, 1973.

His last fight before taking on Muhammad Ali had earned ken Norton precisely $300, but he sneaked up on Ali and on heavyweight boxing and irrevocably changed its order. His style was unrefined and his shape - huge shoulders and waspish waist - more suited to bodybuilding than boxing. Ken Norton had been a sparring partner of Joe Frazier and become seasoned by the experience. He was also trained by Eddie Futch, who had plotted Frazier's defeat of Ali.

Futch instructed Norton to jab Ali to the ropes and work from head to body. Norton's jab was a powerful weapon and in round two, it forced Ali back into a corner. Once there, Norton nailed him with a straight right hand. It landed precisely at the point of Ali's jaw where he had lost two back teeth. Ali's mouth was slightly open at the moment of impact and these factors combined with Norton's power to fracture the bone.

Angelo Dundee realised immediately what had happened, "I asked him to let me stop the fight," Dundee remembered. "He said, 'no, I can beat this sucker. He wont touch my jaw." It was a remarkable display of courage from Ali who fought for another 10 rounds losing a narrow points decision.

Immediately after the fight, Ali had a 90-minute operation on the jaw. The bones were separated by a quarter of an inch and the surgeon who rewired them said: "I can't fathom how he could go the whole fight like that."

Ali said that in the heat of the fight he barely felt the injury. Indeed he claimed to have been troubled almost as much by his relative lack of fitness. He had missed out on fitness work after spraining an ankle while "revolutionising" the game of Golf by trying to hit the ball on the run.

While Ali was again philosophical in defeat, his career had reached a crossroads. His 10-fight unbeaten run since the Frazier defeat took on a different note - he had fought no one of any note and now he had lost to a fighter most of the world had never heard of. Howard Cosell was among those who felt Ali's career was over: "It was the end of the road as far as I could see. So many of Ali's fights had incredible symbolism, and here it was again. Ken Norton, former marine against the draft dodger in San Diego, a conservative naval town. It seemed Ali would never get his title back."