Muhammed Ali Talks About Getting His Jaw Broken By Ken Norton - Carson Tonight Show - 05/17/1973

okay, you know who's here

tonight

, of course, you know who's here

tonight

, we announced it, I announced it and then you announced it, it was a rhetorical question, we had it on the board all day, I know who's here , was that kind of question. you know who's here, uh, he doesn't deserve a response on september 10 at the los angeles forum, muhammad ali is fighting a return fight with ken

norton

, the first man who managed to really silence him and did so, as you well know, by breaking his jaw on that. last fight would you welcome our good friend muhammad ali now champion let me ask you this how is your friend howard gosell by the way okay yeah how are you feeling you were feeling pretty good the last time i saw you on a

show

you were talking like that this, yeah, like a ventriloquist, I was hooked up for about four weeks, it was supposed to be about five, but I healed faster than a normal guy, yeah, yeah, you probably would, yeah, now you know you like to talk, you know that you are a loquacious guy. as a partner and you come here and you've been with us a dozen times on this

show

at least, how does it feel to have to have a wired job to go to the hospital and then they give you a needle and you count down from ten? one back and when you get to seven you sleep fine and when I woke up I couldn't move my teeth and I have a mirror and all my teeth are hot I almost went crazy just at the thought of not being able to talk about it but it sounded like insulin when you do I did that I did that pretty well I did that pretty well yeah I know, does it feel pretty good now?

Yes, I have about five more weeks before I can take hits, but I understand that they usually heal more difficult than they did at the beginning. But? a little weak, plus my mouth was gaping open. I was clowning once for two minutes and they hit me trying to talk. Yes, during the fight. Do you still talk to the opponent during the fight? I thought you had given up, well sometimes I do, but I still said something and this is what happened during the entire period of the fight, it is not being serious and playing and not living according to my religious teachers like I know that I should do it and I just see this as a beating and this will make me more serious. train harder and don't take people for granted no, what didn't you do, you should have done well a lot of things that I can't really get into and it's not for anyone, but know it, but I don't, I didn't I want to be personal, You answered exactly what you want to answer, so how did you eat?

All liquid. Yes, this has made me a vegetarian. Now I don't eat meat anymore. Only fish. Not really. Yes, I do. I don't think I could do it right. I met people who were vegetarians in the past and I said: no meat, how do you do it? This is what we might think, but all my food was put in blenders like my wife cooked a pot. of cabbage and then blend it and it will come out like a smoothie and all you do is drink it the same cabbage smoothie, yeah, and you know, that creamy kind, you know the same thing with corn and eating fish with a little cream.

Well, you're not a real vegetarian, you do eat fish, oh yes, but not beef or those kinds of animals, so I'll see how long I can last, but I was surprised, I really feel better, don't be so tired. or nothing, no, how about your weight? Does that affect your weight a lot? Well I'm heavier now, I don't know why, but I haven't been training and I'm just laying around the house and eating, but I have to start training for about another week. because the second time i will be really ready,

norton

will have to be very careful, yes, because musically speaking, if he doesn't see well, he will go flat, you think he's been inside you for four weeks with his jaws wired shut and you couldn't get out that in what round of the fight uh did you break your jaw two rounds second round was kind of hard uh that's amazing and uh that you could even stand in a ring and have someone hit you in the face with a

broken

jaw, I mean, if not I knocked it out, I realized at that moment, I didn't know if it was

broken

or not, but my whole system was shut down and it's a bad bad feeling, I mean, just by moving my mouth, something just broke. and moving and missing a punch or throwing a punch, you could feel a jar just jumping and I had to go 10 rounds without

getting

hit in that jaw again and the next day in the hospital watching the reruns I was shocked for the fight to be so As close as it was in the 11th round, the fight was close and the man who won the 12th round would win it, so it came out slugging, so for me to win the 12th. th round I would have to go toe to toe knowing I could catch a couple with broken jaws, so my main goal was to back out and just let him fight, but with 18,000 people in the place and having been seen and fought in something that countries live and everyone on home television in America and throughout the sports world and I just left it.

I couldn't dream of it, but I'm lucky and grateful that I didn't get seriously hurt. You know what could have happened if he really did it. I mean, how bad could it have been if he had been blissfully conscious the entire time? George used it, he broke both sides around the same point, but for some unusual reason, only this side was broken, not this one, and if I had been hit with a hard 200 pounder and said fifteen pounds no, from a 215 pounder right at the end. was ruined, he said it could mean death, probably because it would just completely break that bone, now that's the first time you've really done that in your career, even as an amateur, and any time you've actually had an injury, essentially not just an injury, this is an injury that is the worst injury any fighter could have and still be conscious and some of them have been knocked out, some have died, but still be conscious and be in pain and have a broken jaw and it's not So.

The injury is not worse. You know, I watched a rerun of the movie the other night with Kirk. I think we've talked about this on the show, but I'm still intrigued because you're in the only sport I know. Many sports journalists wonder. Sometimes there's even a sport where two guys go out and the express purpose is to hurt the other guy, I mean in football, of course the idea is to tackle him hard and take him down, but your idea is to go out and really hit. . another man senseless or knocked unconscious that's why my fights have been criticized because I had jerry quarry in that place and I called the referee and I stopped I wouldn't do it I had james ellis in this place I had arrested mathis floyd patterson and I have been criticized for not knocking him out or hurting him because that's not my purpose, my purpose is to win any way I can, but not hurt him for life, I don't think any fighter wants to do that. that, but there's always the chance, of course, when you have to hit a man, well, I wasn't as heavy as you guys, that you can permanently injure him, I'd rather get hit with those gloves and some of these drivers.

I'll see these hockey players, they pick them all, I'll take it, yeah, maybe hockey is another game where the idea is to kill your opponent after you've seen some of them. Soccer could be difficult too. The thought of every creature I saw on replay. from the kirk douglas movie champion where he played the wrestler does that thought ever come to your mind and do you know what happens to some wrestlers when you get in a ring that there is always a chance that you could end up in some type of injury? that would end your career or make you uh I'm going to tell you something that maybe you understand, maybe you don't agree, maybe you don't understand, but the worst thing I hate about my career is

getting

to where I have to be, the way I am. the college speaking tour now richard fulton a college agent here in new york he always has some time to go to college and most of the time i can't build but we just went to auburn university alabama auburn i had to be in the Howard Coastal Roads dinner in Los Angeles that Sunday night, I mean Sunday night, yes, Sunday night and the next night I had to be in Auburn, Alabama, so where to fly?

Yes, I hate airplanes. I do, but I just have the idea of ​​this big thing going through there at 600 miles an hour through turbulence and rain and one thing can't happen and yet it's mechanical, there are so many wires and switches involved, but if something happened up there I would be finished, I never worry about boxing and the pilot tells me he said how can you be a boxer? Are you scared and the planes are shaking? I guess it's all relative, right? So if you're fatalistic about it, I guess you should be because if you're going to fight, I can't have that psyche out all the time that I can get hurt, well, I've been hurt a few times, I've fallen off motorcycles and been in car accidents, I almost died. , but I've never been on a plane that did one thing wrong, so yeah, doing one thing, we'll take a break here.

Now is the time to find the answer. The question: which matador are we talking to? Muhammad Ali and Jack Albertson will join us later. mardi gras maryland may and the incredible crescent does your wife ever pressure you to stop all the movies i watch? Usually at some point the crying wife shows up and she tells you that you have to quit smoking. She doesn't like sports. She doesn't like sports. but she never worries until the last fight then she worried for some reason she knew my jaw was broken before the doctors at the hospital x-rayed his wife knew everyone was fine I don't know what she did but um I just mentioned how many people come.

I have to start winning my fights because I used to laugh. You always came out first. No, you always went out. You always went out. Champions. Always come. Everyone, come and Muhammad Ali, yes, and everyone come first. Because everyone stays home waiting to see me and now, why don't you go beat him up? Kresge can beat up Chris and you can come last. About your wife, she never says that she gave up. I can never ask you a question. Not now. I don't have to answer this because it's a little personal, but you as a person who is a celebrity, you have to give up a little privacy from time to time and I'm just asking this question, not to surprise, but for example, and this says A long time ago, in any athletic activity or in wars, they used to say that the Romans, before going into battle, women could not be with the Roman soldiers before the battle weakened them.

I've heard that's true, now I'm not like I say. I don't want to get personal, but football players say we don't want women on training pitches, because that weakens the fire. The same goes for boxers. Do you have to remain virginal like before a fight? They only answered me as an academic question, I'm not trying to investigate your personal life, as handsome as you are and as popular as you are, Johnny Carson, I imagine you're walking down the street in Cleveland or Washington, New York, and if anyone sees it, I mean everyone. the days he's at everyone's house who doesn't know Johnny Carson, I mean do you have a lot of problems with girls when you go out and try?

No, okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, what kind of answer is it? That was more or less. I can put it best for mohamed, certainly, what about you before a show at my age? I can't do it before brushing my teeth. I mean, I lose so much strength. I can't get the brush to work. You know what I mean? it somehow takes away your strength, well, we have a train. I just built a training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles away and it cost me about a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. I have a log cabin that can train a couple of The bunk beds have a restaurant and we have horse tables and I built all this just to get away from my wife.

Ah well, then you have the question on the mountain. Look, there he is every day, up and down the mountain, making a little joke. Kidding, the nose joke, no, you've answered the question, no, it was an honest question and I didn't want to really delve into your personal life, so you predict that you're going to win this, we have a fence around us and wild dogs. Why doesn't anyone come in? So you want to stay with us for a second or you have to run or whatever you can you can stay for a while or whatever you want to do if you break up with me.

I appreciate you going because It's trapped in me, you have to train and you have to sleep and everything, right? It's not that fast, but I have another stop for me, yeah, okay, on September 10th at the forum in Los Angeles. angeles with ken norton ken norton and uh, I promise you that the second time will be very different from the first, it's okay, as I promised, it's okay, take care, thank you oh