How long does Floyd Patterson hold the title with Vitali Klitschko as his brother?

Assume that these two prime heavyweights coordinate their efforts to match Vitali against the toughest opponents for Floyd. It starts after Patterson beats Moore.

How long does Floyd hold the title?

 

A few early thoughts.

Vitali is close to his best from 1999 to 2004, roughly 5 years. Patterson wins the title in 1956 and loses it to Liston in 1962.

Vitali's first retirement from injuries comes about 5 years in to his peak form. That means it happens around 1961. Liston's best qualifying fights for the title come in 1960.

So ironically, Vitali may indeed get injured and take his first retirement right at the point where Patterson needs him to knock Liston off the docket.

This is especially ironic because it's the stretch when he could have helped out Wladimir in real life. (And because Rahman is a very Listonesque heavyweight.) For the record, I think Vitali beats Liston if he fights him healthy and in his prime. But that probably doesn't happen in this scenario.

Vitali comes back four years later. That puts it in 1965 territory. He stays around 4 more years. Say 1969 ish.

I don't think Vitali can help Patterson against Ali, since old Vitali would probably lose to Ali as well. And even if he beat Ali, it's not like he can give the title to Patterson.

That means that old Vitali's best use is during the heavyweight tournament during the latter 60s, after Ali's retirement. Unfortunately, there are just too many fighters in this tournament who can beat Patterson. Quarry, Ellis, and Frazier are all favorites against Patterson, based on either their abilities or actual performances against Floyd, and Vitali can't fight them all. Also, I think prime Frazier beats old Vitali in a very ugly fight.

Patterson's only hope is to rush to make a match between Vitali and Liston in 1960 or 1961. Unfortunately, Patterson isn't a fortune teller. He's got Ingo keeping him busy until 1961, and he probably thinks he's safe to wait for Vitali to beat Liston in late 1961 or early 1962.

So strangely enough, adding an elite modern superheavyweight to Patterson's team may accomplish exactly nothing for his career.

 

It's the topic of the thread.

Wait, which retired failure did Patterson duck?

 

True, though I don't think D'Amato would have a problem doing it, considering he matched Patterson against Rademacher.

 

Thoughts on whether it would help?

 

Well spotted.

Yes, I began with the idea of evaluating whether it helped Wlad, using Patterson as a comparison case.

At this point, though, I think the question is interesting for its own sake. Vitali's tendency to get injured, combined with Patterson's career trajectory, may actually prevent Vitali from helping Patterson very much.