Quote:
Originally Posted by DSB
I was always partial to Floyd Patterson.
I watched the fight he had with Jimmy Ellis for the championship that was vacant after Ali was stripped of the title, and I felt for sure that he was robbed in that decision.
He had Ellis at his mercy late in the fight and his corner was yelling "knock him out! Knock him out!"
Floyd was sure he had the fight on points, though, and refused to finish his helpless opponent off.
That cost him his third heavyweight championship - he would have been the only fighter in that class to do that at the time - when the judges inexplicably gave the fight to Ellis.
I think what made me like Patterson was far more than his boxing ability. He always seemed like a classy, modest, gentleman out of the ring - an aura lost on most of those in his profession.
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I agree with your opinion of Patterson as a person. In fact, his nickname was The Gentleman of Boxing.
But I was not much of a fan of his place in the boxing world. He was the light heavyweight gold medal winner in the '52 Olympics, and would have had a more memorable career in that class. "They" roadmapped his route to the heavyweight championship with some rather easy bouts. An elimination series was created after Marciano died, and the competition was "suspect" to say the least. He beat a very old Archie Moore to win the title.
The fighters he fought and defeated to defend his title (Hurricane Jackson, Pete Rademacher, Roy Harris, and Brian London) were not highly ranked. He showed a lot of guts in his fights with Johannsen, but IMO, Ingemar was not that much.
Anyway, I got to meet his adopted son, Tracy Patterson at an autograph session and Floyd raised him right.
