Floyd "The Gentleman of Boxing" Patterson

The first fighter I ever got into way back when as a kid.
Loved his style and his speed, was absolutely gutted when the bogeyman Sonny knocked him out twice in the 1st round.
Ali later became my hero, but Floyd was always up there, indeed as was Liston, Frazier and all the others from back then.
In fact I love all fighters, even the arse holes!!

 

From natural middleweight to undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. That's an achievement. Ali said Patterson was the most skilled fighter that he fought. You would have to be skilled to have those limitations against you and still prevail. One of my favourite fighters of all time.

 

Why did Ali call him the Rabbit?

 

Floyd was a fine fighter. Very skilled as Ali said.

 

I'm so glad there's people on here that appreciate this great man. He really did have such a crap childhood and growing up with so many insecuritys. But he made it to the top. The youngest champ at the time and first to regain. And in and out of the ring a gentleman always. He doesn't do so well head to head in a lot of fantasy fights on here but the guy had heaps of talent. Fighting against the odds but always battling. His attitude puts the other Floyd to shame.

 

Because he was timid and shy, I think. And because Ali could be a bit of an arse hole. Although in the grand scheme of trash talk, it's hardly 'eating his babies and making him his girlfriend'.

Chuvalo was the washer woman because of how he threw arm punches, apparently.

 

lightning fast combinations
always admired his behaviour outside the ring real classy gentlemen great idol

 

One of the saddest things I ever heard about in boxing was Floyd answering questions in his capacity as commissioner for the New York State Athletic Commission or some such body. Floyd had been appointed as a bit of a PR coup; I think his duties were fairly ambassadorial. I would hope so as by this time he was seriously suffering from Dementia.

He really struggled with the questioning, at one point struggling to recall his birthday, that his wife had died and even, IIRC, where he was. But throughout, he was honest and very courteous, unstintingly so. In the most difficult circumstances, he never let himself down.

I have always admired people who adopt. I couldn't do it. Floyd could. Yet another reason to have nothing but utter admiration.

JFK called upon him to beat Sonny Liston and then left him high and dry and refused to see him after the fight. When Liston lost in 1 to Ali, Floyd remembered how he had felt and went to Sonny's changing room to console him. It may have been one of the kindest gestures Sonny ever received.

Never mind what he achieved in the ring. His fights as a mid 30 something against the likes of Bonavena and Ellis show that, even at that advanced boxing age, he could have mixed it with the great 70s contenders and, for me, they leave a greater legacy than even his championship reign.

It is outside the ring, in what he said, what he did and how he did it, that marks Floyd Patterson out as a genuinely humble and good man. Boxing could do with a few of him at the moment.

 

Great fighter and even greater gentleman

 

I'm absolutely with you as far as Floyd is concerned, Red. Great exciting fighter with an unfair rep for being chinny. His fight with Liston was a replica for Tyson v Spinks and, much as I like Michael Spinks, the heart Floyd showed compared to the Jinx in facing certain humiliation was in stark contrast. He went down but he took his lumps. The heart he showed against Ali when his back went, not to mention his loss to Ingo when he kept getting up time and again, cements him as one of the bravest, if not best, of champs.

Had he stayed at Light heavy, especially in the days of day before weigh ins, he could have reigned through the late 50s to the late 60s and he would have been remembered as one of the sport's very elite champions. For those of us who appreciate the character behind the man, he is anyway.

 

Always loved watching him fight ... his style, his form; the best word that comes to mind is "efficient." Nothing for show, always measured and balanced. He was moving art.