Rademacher got a shot at the World Heavyweight Title in his pro debut. I realize he was 29 but, geez, give the guy a few fights to acclimate to the pro game. He lost his second fight, as well. Zora Folley, who had over 40 fights, beat him. He later outpointed George Chuvalo, so he had some ability.
He was apparently someone who his people felt was going to be short lived, possibly due to turning pro so late. So they did what they could to move him along fast and cash out on him ASAP. In hindsight they were probably right for doing so. He might have developed into a better fighter with a brighter future had he been brought along differently. But then again by the time they developed him through the more traditional path he probably would have been around 34-35 years old and might have lost or gotten injured along the way, getting no title shot at all.
Pete Rademacher pretty much single handedly came up with the vision to challenge for the HW title in his first fight, got the backers, pulled together the money to pay Floyd (and it was a huge purse btw) and pulled it off. Give the guy credit for realizing something like that. Not many people in general much less pugs would have been able to pull that off. Pretty interesting guy, very sharp, and apparently very successful.
Good comments; this fight, in no way, takes anything away from Patterson's legacy; so many want to bring it up but the climate was different in those days. Pete was a career amateur who finally turned pro. He was 7-8 years older than Floyd and outweighed him by a ton. After the right floored Floyd, he rose quickly with a bemused, embarrassed look on his face. The rest of the fight speaks for itself. Pete did, as the other posters said, had a 'decent' run as a pro. Again, things were different at that time (Think Stevenson turning pro in 79-80)
It doesn't exactly help his legacy either to have defended the heavyweight title against a debuting fighter when other far more deserving Challengers were meandering about...
If you remember another Olympic Gold Medalist named Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali to TAKE the title when he had a 6-0-1 record.....The Rademacher vs Patterson fight was a great and legitimate promotional idea....We are still talking about it.
I only started the thread because I thought it was ridiculous anybody got a shot at the World Heavyweight Title in his very first fight.
I agree that at first glance it was, but if you dig deeper it wasnt that crazy considering Pete's ability to move mountains and get the funding needed. If you were HW champion today and some amateur promised you $40mil to defend against him youd do it in a heartbeat. Its not called prizefighting for nothing. Patterson came from a very poor background and had just defended against his #1. History and economics are on his side in this one.