Produced by Jim Clark.
This man is all too familiar with pain.
A heavyweight boxing champion who battled Muhammad Ali three times.
His career, like that of all boxers,
ordered the fine line between sport and combat.
One wrong reaction, or lack of reaction,
can spell the difference between glory and pain.
I've been around some pretty famous people in my life
but I always wanted to get a chance to be around Ken Norton.
Great opportunity for me, great opportunity for you, the viewer.
Ken, great having you with us, buddy.
Good being here.
Now, I want to ask you some questions about yourself.
Who are you? What's your background and how did you get into boxing?
Well, basically, I got involved in the boxing.
I was about 23 years old in the Marine Corps.
It's very late age to start, but then again, in high school and college.
I was not introduced to boxing because in the city I lived in,
which was a very small town in Illinois, Jacksonville.
There wasn't a boxing.
All we had was basketball, football, track, baseball, and tennis.
Well, Ken, you've been out of boxing for about a year,
but I know you're still fast. I know you're still powerful.
And earlier this week, we've got a chance to take a look at you,
just how powerful and how much speed you have, even with a one-year area.
Let's take a look.
Well, as Ken punts the heavy bag while standing on the force plate,
Dr. Gideon Ariel was able to measure the forces he exerted with a jab.
Remember, as in every other sport, power comes from the ground up.
So let's check in with Dr. Gideon Ariel.
Look at this big. With his left jab, Ken Norton was producing 275 pounds.
This is on one leg, on the front leg.
This is over 500 pounds of force going right out of the bag.
You know, Ken, I really appreciate how much force you get out of his legs,
but while I'm taking the death of your after-research centers,
because I always wanted to monitor.
Oh, a big guy like you can make that blinding speed coming with your arms.
Have you ever, up to this point, had any electronic measurement?
Oh, to this point, I've never tried it before.
All right, now you're going to get a chance to see what the measurement showed.
You're at the research center.
On this one, Ken, we checked in not only for power, but for hand speed.
Vic, this is the kinetic data for Ken Norton.
Again, we look on the force cap.
And what we're finding out here, that every time Ken Norton hit this bag,
he can reach a force, which is approximately 250,
sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less,
but every time he hit the bag, it's 250 pounds on one leg.
Also, he can do it quite fast.
We're finding out that he can do it almost 10 times a second.
Anybody that can do that, 10 times a second.
With 250 pounds, every hit should be in a great shape.
So, what are you then pulling my leg?
Gideon says, you're still like a 20-year-old.
Looks can be deceiving.
But let me tell you, Ken, if you haven't had this machinery before,
would that have changed your life or what the style or anything about your boxing career?
I feel that this machinery and what you're doing here is very sophisticated.
So, therefore, having this case of adding along with my regular training,
having the scientific data along with my regular training,
I feel like it would have been about 50% better at least.
I would have had them prove.
Thanks for being with us.
I'm a teacher for it.
I'm coming to you for a loan.
Well, that's good.
Future's part will be right back.
Thank you.