Last Wednesday it was announced that former heavyweight champion Ken Norton had passed away.

The 70-year-old was the man who gave Muhammad Ali the most trouble during his career, famously breaking Ali's jaw in a 1973 bout. A third fight between the duo occurred in 1976 which Ali won via the scorecard, even though most pundits would have called the fight in Norton's favour.

Norton was awarded with the World Heavyweight championship a year later without having to fight but lost the belt straight away after a defeat on a split decision to Larry Holmes. The brutal 15 round contest is considered one of the greatest fights in history and Holmes would later describe it as his most difficult fight.

Despite his success in one of the strongest heavyweight eras and despite starring in movies, Norton is less of a household name than other names of his era as he was perceived as less charismatic and flashy.

Last night Ger spoke to Rich O'Brien of Sports Illustrated about a man who came close to becoming Ali's boxing kryptonite.

"In the US we like to talk about Mount Rushmore and if you look at the Golden Age of Heavyweights then it's Mount Rushmore would feature Ali, Fraizer, Foreman and Holmes. But Norton was almost right at that peak and I think it was bad luck that he came along when he did because he was a remarkable fighter," said O'Brien.

But why does he not stand out to such a degree in the pantheon of the greats? Was it just a fact that he was less flamboyant?

"There was an element of that. But you have to remember that when he had his second big chance against Foreman, he was really blown out and Foreman walked right through him. It was against Ali that he was repeatedly at his best. I spoke to Foreman last weekend about his affection for Norton. He told me something that I'd never heard before which is that after Foreman had retired, it looked like Ali would have to fight Norton for a third time. Foreman said that Ali called him and said 'George, you got to come out of retirement, fight Kenny Norton, beat him up and knock him out for me.' And George said it was like having Ali calling his big brother because he couldn't beat this guy."

O'Brien also touched on Norton's backstory. He became a single father at 22 and was voted Father of The Year in 1977. Yet everything was not rosy.

"His family life was stormy. He was estranged from his son, Ken Norton Jr, who was a great NFL football player. Because of that he faded in the public's mind a little bit."

Listen to the full interview with Rich O'Brien below or download the podcast on iTunes: