Appreciating Floyd Patterson!

[butterfly1964]

i always thought this was obvious, but unlike what i hear on this forum alot, Patterson is an all-time great! he became the youngest hw champion and still is the youngest undisputed champ, he never ducked a fighter in his life (or sonny liston never would have became champ), and he had the most guts probably of any fighter. the fact that he wanted to fight liston again after he lost the title is proof enough, but he actually wanted to fight liston a third time, but never got a chance to 'cause he fell out of the mainstream of top contenders after his loss to ali in '65. he was the first to regain the title, doing so by a savage beat down of johannson, and had the title for a total of 5 years and had six title defenses. but like joe frazier, he is underrated cause he unfortunately fought at the same time two other all-time greats were, muhammad ali and sonny liston (frazier's were ali and george foreman) and is only remembered as getting beat by both of them. patterson is a great champion, and probably the second fastest hw under ali. he never ran from an opponent and faced all-comers. you don't see much of that today, or from people like tyson, jeffries and marciano. he should get the credit he deserves!

[Linx]

I agree with most of your post and yes Floyd Patterson was very underrated mainly because of his Liston losses as is Liston to his Ali losses. However, he did avoid Liston for many years until he had no choice to fight him, because Liston had cleaned out the divison from 58-62. Floyd's handlers keeped him away from Sonny for as long as possible because they knew what the result would be and it came true, two brutal first round KO's.

[Kid Achilles]

Floyd never avoided anyone. That was Cus D'Amato's doing.

Patterson was the man. What a perfect gentleman outside the ring, and what a talented fighter inside. You always hear that Patterson was floored more than any other heavyweight champion, but he also picked himself back up more than any other heavyweight champion.

He possessed Ali-quick handspeed, and frightening power for a man of his size. Check out the Jonhanson knockout in their second fight if you don't believe me.

In spite of all of that, he may have been the gentlest, nicest man to win the HW title.

[Skydog]

Yea, the dude's power is very underrated. That left hook on Johansson is no light hit. It's a full blown, powered punch. The only problem I see is his chin.

[Keleneki]

Nice thread.

How is Patterson doing these days? I heard a few years ago that he doesn't remember people's names, other memory loss, ...

Thanks.

[Gemini531]

Nice thread.

How is Patterson doing these days? I heard a few years ago that he doesn't remember people's names, other memory loss, ...

Thanks.

patterson in his prime was a monster. Even Ali said he wanted to be a champion like floyd.

[Verstyle]

when i see patterson i think of ali. but i loved floyd peek a boo style more then tyson's cause he's was more compact.

[Gemini531]

when i see patterson i think of ali. but i loved floyd peek a boo style more then tyson's cause he's was more compact.

He was more composed in the ring than tyson you could see he new how to box the way he tried to score on ali.

[Skydog]

God, I'm sitting here watching that KO of Johnasson. Man, every time I watch it, the more I like Floyd.

[butterfly1964]

patterson is dead. so sorry.