Floyd Patterson vs Pete Rademacher

[TheGreatA]

Rademacher's pro debut:

[LondonRingRules]

Originally Posted by TheGreatA

Rademacher's pro debut:

** Thanks for posting that as I've always wondered about that bout.

Might be the toughest pro debut in boxing history, and whatever Pete lacked, he sure had a lot of heart and took it to the champ early on.

[BattlingNelson]

They tried to hype this fight: The worlds heavyweight champion vs. the olympic champion. Of course most could see through the bull***** and Patterson, who's credibility as a champion already questioned, took a lot of heat by defending his title against an amateur. To add insult to injury Rademacher managed to floor Patterson in the second round.

Poor Rademacher never had a career worthy of an olympic champion. He probably would have fared better with a cleverer management.

[TheGreatA]

Rademacher did have a dominant win over a young Chuvalo so he certainly must have had some talent. He was known as a puncher, having KO'd all of his three opponents during the Olympic Games.

Watching this it is hard to imagine why Johansson was such a big underdog against Patterson. Even Rademacher was able to land the right and drop Patterson but he did not have the power and finishing ability that Johansson displayed by KO'ing Eddie Machen in the first round.

In a recent interview from a year ago Rademacher stated that he regretted taking the fight against Patterson so early, he felt he could have gone on to have a much more successful pro career with more experience.

Rademacher lost to Patterson but his valiant performance brought him the respect of many. He took on the top contender Zora Folley in his next fight and was beaten badly.

[Jim Jeffries]

Nice vid. Pete has to be the only Olympic gold medalist to ever start his pro career 0-2. Good example of how not to pace a guy.

[TheGreatA]

Originally Posted by Jim Jeffries

Nice vid. Pete has to be the only Olympic gold medalist to ever start his pro career 0-2. Good example of how not to pace a guy.

You're probably right.

Another Olympic gold medalist who had a tough start to his career that I can think of was Fidel LaBarba.

His pro debut was against durable journeyman Frankie Grandetta whom he easily beat but three of his next four fights were against an undefeated Jimmy McLarnin. He lost twice and drew once.

In his 7th fight he drew with the underrated Newsboy Brown and won a version of the world flyweight title against a much more experienced Frankie Genaro in just his 10th professional bout.

[TheGreatA]

Here it is again:

[GJC]

They ought to have gone to prison for promoting that one!

[sonnyboyx2]

another Olympic champion i would like to mention was Ed Sanders who beat Ingo Johansson in the 52 Helsinki final.. Big Ed set of ok in the pro ranks but soon found the going very tough, he was used as a sparring partner by Sonny Liston and by all acounts Liston roughed him up real bad, Big Ed was killed in his next pro fight with many claiming the damage was done in the Liston sparring sessions