Pete Rademacher's first Defense after k.o.ing Floyd?

crazy idea…...but why not. i Thing he goes the other way: he´d pick the toughest challenge out there in Eddie machen, cause after all, he had the balls to take on the champ in his first fight!!

 

D'Amato would have had a rematch all set up in a nanosecond.

 

After Ko ing Patterson in a shock upset Rademacher is lauded as a potential great heavy champion. After doing that i n his first pro fight ,the Sky's the limit .
He then sign's for the Swedish fighter Johansson ,seen as a possible soft touch .
Ingo comes out and with one of the first right hands thrown catches Pete and dropping him heavily .Ingo win s in just under two mins .

 

D'Amato had required Rademacher's backers to place $100,000 in an escrow account to guarantee a rematch for Patterson if Pete prevailed. That pretty much addresses the issue since $100,000 was a lot of money back then.

Aside from that fact, Rademacher would have looked for a fight with the most money. Depending on the circumstances of his victory over Floyd, a return match still might have been the most money. If not Patterson, what about Marciano? He had retired only a year earlier, and he might have changed his mind about retirement if Pete had won. In newspaper reports, he was polite about Rademacher's skills, but he didn't seem impressed. I think Rocky might have licked his chops to fight Pete if there was a promoter around to offer him enough.


The timing for a Johansson fight might not have been quite right. Rademacher fought Patterson in August 1957 and Johannson didn't kayo Machen until September 1958. Pete might have felt obligated to defend his title within the one year period which the NBA supposedly required even though Archie Moore and Ray Robinson were playing fast and loose with this rule around the same time. On the other hand, Rademacher didn't really have his heart in the pro game so he might have milked the public appearances and exhibitions for all they were worth. If he dilly-dallied around long enough, maybe the Johansson fight would have been the one.

It's an interesting question, Machen and Folley were the top contenders around this time, but they were both boring and they had virtually eliminated themselves with their boring draw in May 1958 as far as interesting any promoters in a title fight.

Actually, since the closed-circuit era was still in its infancy, there would have been interest in the Seattle/Pacific Northwest region for a Rademacher-Pat McMurtry fight. Rademacher and potential promoters would have looked more at the live gate to determine the best option. Rademacher was regarded as a homeboy by Seattleites and McMurtry was an idol in Tacoma which was located just 30 miles south of Seattle. Pete might have felt that he would have his best chance against McMurtry. Pat had drawn two gates in the $50,000 range in Tacoma against Ezzard Charles and Willie Pastrano. The Patterson-Rademacher fight drew about $220,000, so it is not beyond the realm of possiblity that a Rademacher-McMurtry heavyweight title fight could have drawn $300,000 plus, giving Pete a $150,000 payday. Since the IBC was tied up in litigation there weren't that many promoters walking around and I'm not sure who would have offered that kind of dough.

Another very real possibility is that Pete might have milked the title for a year or two without any fights and then retired. I think he has said as much in interviews after he retired from professional boxing.