Nice comments guys.
Most of you know that I rate Floyd Patterson as one of the finest technicians who ever laced gloves on. He had some of the fastest hands to ever grace the sport, arguably a faster left than Ali!
Two things hurt his legacy and the way he is viewed by the casual observer:
Poor punch resistance.
Too small to be truely competitive with the larger heavyweight legends of the ring.
He really was a cruiserweight and he'd have a real chance of beating just about every cruiserweight who has ever lived. Evander Holyfield might be the only one who'd have a good chance.
Granted, some of the heavier handed smaller heavyweights such as Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano might well exploit his punch resistance, but I think they'd be outboxed early on.
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