BoxRec

Practically from the day I first walked into Singer's Gym in downtown Buffalo to begin training almost 30 years ago, I've heard stories about how when local heavyweight journeyman Vic Brown fought Kenny Norton he had him down & nearly out before getting stopped himself. Some accounts had him dropping Norton two or three times even.

But, I've always been rather skeptical about the claims because all the old timers there who recounted the tale ( like Johnny Sudac who ran the gym ) knew that I was a huge Ken Norton fan & weren't beyond giving my then 17 year old self a hard time about it. Plus, in all the magazine stories I read about Norton ( which was a LOT ), none ever mentioned the Brown fight.

Nor have any in the years since. Not only that, but Norton's recent biography doesn't mention it either & it would seem like a story about a fight in which he had to get up off the floor to win against a big underdog of an opponent would be something that would be included because of the drama involved. But there's not a word about it.

So, up until very recently, I considered the whole thing BS.

That is until BoxRec's recent revamp or update or whatever you want to call it. After which, lo & behold, under that line of type showing the result of the fight is the notation that Norton WAS down! Along with a listing for the sourse of the notation being an issue of something called BOXING LIFE magazine.

Which quite shocked me, because I've been collecting boxing magazines since 1976 & that's a magazine that I've never heard of before. So, actually this post is two pronged in that I NEED to know any & all details about the Norton - Brown fight as well as any info anyone has on this particular magazine.

Any & all help & info will be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks much.

If Norton came back to win the fight, that would be another notch against those who claim Norton always "froze" against big punchers.

But sorry, I have no info to help you regarding your question.

Youve caught my attention with this.
We are the same age and Ive been reading boxing magazines for a long time.
Ive never heard of boxing life magazine.
Maybe some one here can shine some light on this.
Vic Brown seems like he was a Scrapiron Johnson type who fought many big names and gave a good account of himself.

Man, this has been like 35 years. I did see the fight back then but I don't believe Norton was down. I recall Brown charging Norton in the first round with his awkward southpaw style and running Norton into a corner but I can't recall a count being rendered only the Ref separating them. Wish I could be more help.

Scartissue

Hey no prob. Like I said, any & all help is much appreciated.

Expug, yeah it's just as perplexing to me. I have hundreds upon hundreds of boxing magazines that I've collected over the past three decades & during the course of accumulating them all I've never seen or heard of BOXING LIFE.

I've got plenty of mags that had short runs & one shots too, but certainly no copies of BOXING LIFE. So, I'm thinking that maybe it was a regional publication or a "fanzine" type of thing along the lines of Malcolm "Flash" Gordon's TONIGHT'S BOXING PROGRAM.

I'm sure that THE RING and/or BOXING ILLUSTRATED must have covered the Norton - Brown bout as well, but unfortunately, I've got some gaps in my collections of both from that period of the late '60s - early '70s.

That's why I was hoping that perhaps someone with a more complete collection might dig out the corresponding issues that would've covered the fight ( I'm sure it would be a smaller story in the back of the mags as Norton was just a prospect at that point ) & recount the story here.

edit

Thanks a ton Dave. That definitely helps.

I'd still like to see a more detailed account of the Brown fight, but we're getting there ...

That sounds like an interesting, but short-lived magazine. Of which there were a few back in the day. One of my personal favorites was TV BOXING which was published back in 1980 - '81. It has a really enthusiastic fans perspective of the game. Unfortunately, it lasted only four issues.

I also quite liked Hank Kaplan's BOXING DIGEST which ran about twenty some issues in the late '70s to the early '80s. It also did plenty of detailed stories on some of the more obscure fighters & journeymen of the day rather than focusing only on the "big" names all the time. Which I've always enjoyed.

Outstanding Dave thanks.
I remember Kaplans publication also Joe.
I think I picked up all of them.
Question for Dave and Joe.
Did The Ring stop putting out issues in the late eighties?
I recall some problem that they had briefly.

Yep, there was a period of time around then when THE RING was in a state of limbo & stopped being published for a while. It wasn't for very long, but it was MIA for a bit.

If I'm not mistaken it occured after the period when Bert Sugar ran it & the publishers pulled the rug out from under him & sold it other interests. Who then put it out for a year or two in the late '80s with a rather shoddy product, a somewhat erradict publishing shedule & even worse distribution.

As I recall, they basically ran it into the ground & killed it until the group behind KO, WORLD BOXING etc. bought the rights to it & resurrected it.

joe kurtz wrote:Yep, there was a period of time around then when THE RING was in a state of limbo & stopped being published for a while. It wasn't for very long, but it was MIA for a bit.

If I'm not mistaken it occured after the period when Bert Sugar ran it & the publishers pulled the rug out from under him & sold it other interests. Who then put it out for a year or two in the late '80s with a rather shoddy product, a somewhat erradict publishing shedule & even worse distribution.

As I recall, they basically ran it into the ground & killed it until the group behind KO, WORLD BOXING etc. bought the rights to it & resurrected it.

Thanks for the info.
I remember thinking it was odd not being able to find it.

The RING ended when Nat Fleischer died.

Some of the good writers lived a little longer, but not much longer.

Hapless Nat Loubet, Fleischer's son in law, tried to take it over and was pathetic.

Then group with drunken Bert Sugar (who brought in all his clueless buddies) turned it into absolute garbage, then Fleischer's enemy and competitor in boxing magazines, Harold Weston, got it and put in schoolboy Steve "I Hate Jack Dempsey" Farhood as editor.

The demise continued as clueless Nigel Collins has been "editor" of the dead carcass of what was once the "Bible of Boxing" for the last 20 years.

Say what you will about Bert's drinking habits ( which are, indeed, impressive as I've shared many a barstool & cocktail lounge table with him over the years here in Buffalo, in NYC, AC & in Canastota & I've never come close to matching him drink for drink ... ), but don't disparage his tenure at THE RING. I think he did a good job.

joe, granberry is just a cranky hack.....who lives to promote the memory of Jimmy Young (not a bad thing) and has vowed never to speak a word on the Ali Terrell fight for some mysterious reason. Ali and Sugar are but a few of the boxing icons he loathes.

He knows how to show a novice how to throw a knockout punch but can't get past his bitterness to talk reasonable about some very deserving names in boxing. I recently discovered that both Ali and Bert had their way with women that granberry cherished but was too shy to approach .......and well..... his unforgiving ways have poisoned his grip on reality.

Yeah, I kind of figured that out.

Thanks for the heads up anyway though.

Peace.

I WAS THERE AT THAT FIGHT. IT WAS HELD IN SANTA MONICA, CA. NORTON DID NOT GO DOWN, BUT BROWN REALLY DID HURT HIM WITH A RIGHT HAND. HE WAS OUT ON HIS FEET, BUT BROWN DID NOT FOLLOW UP. I TALKED WITH BROWN AFTER THE FIGHT AND HE SAID HIS JAW WAS BROKE, BUT IT LOOKED OK TO ME, AND HE TALKED OKAY. BUT THEN I'M NOT A DOC. NORTON WAS HURT, BUT DID NOT GO DOWN. RB.

JUST LOOKED UP VIC BROWNS RECORD AND IT SAYS THAT NORTON WAS DOWN. LONG TIME AGO, SO THAT I DO NOT REMEMBER. RB.

Thanks Brich, like I said, every bit of info helps as I piece this one together.

joe, buzz is just a cranky hack.....who lives to promote the memory of drunken Bert Sugar who turned the Ring magazine into a farce.

Buzz never had a fight with his own sister but is compelled to post on a boxing site.

With his total ignorance of boxing, poor buzz is reduced to making sophomoric posts in an attempt at insulting those who don't pardon his total ignorance of the subject.

granberry, I do not ignore boxing. I often pay attention to many fights along the way. By the way did you happen to see the Ali-Terrell bout? It was a classic.