... in Sabretooth's first appearance, Iron Fist knocked him out without using his powers. A small number of human level punches and kicks were enough to do the job.




The same thing happened the next time they fought.




Also, I don't believe there were any references to him having a healing factor in his early appearances. In a later issue of Spectacular Spider-Man, he was shown to be in hospital with stitches on his face, as a result of tearing that webbing off, and the wounds hadn't fully healed yet, as the Black Cat was able to reopen them. You might call that bad writing in hindsight, but I don't think it contradicted anything back then.