Worse 6 defenses and a title won in a row, is there any worse than Wilder?

he fought him. Twice. Even after being near murdered. How can that be held against him?

 

how many were ranked 1 or 2 when he was champ?

 

The question was who was he hiding from, the answer was Liston.

It's well documented.

It isn't held against him, he fought Liston in the end.

 

Your question was, and I quote: “Out of curiosity who would you say he (Patterson) hid from?”

The answer is Liston. Sonny had to wait and wait and wait and finally Patterson did fight him. And it took less than 3 minutes before we saw why he was hiding from him.

That’s why Floyd needed all those patsy defenses, because this was going to happen. Hell even Rademacher, who had zero professional fights, put Patterson on the deck.

 

i would suggest fighting the top banana available in 4 out of 6 defences, 'meaningful'. Look, i cannot argue with you over liston, you got me there, but at least he went on to fight him not once but twice

 

Machen no1 Folley no2. in57
Valdes no 2. in 58
Liston no1.in60
Machen no2.in61

 

Sonny walked into D'Amato's office banged the table and said "is you or aint you gonna give me a title shot?"
Cus prevaricated ,"you'll have to free yourself of your undesirable associates".
Like he wasnt tied in with Fat Tony Salerno lol.

 

It certainly isn't. It's well documented that Cus wanted him to stay away from Liston, but that he faced him any way.

 

I thought it was obvious that the "he" referred to Team Patterson, apologies if that wasn't the case.

I don't believe any professional fighter actually is scared or hides from anyone.

But the team around them will advise which fights to take and which to not.

In 1960 and 1961 Sonny was the top contender and Team Patterson tried avoiding the fight.

As I've said in that very post you quoted, this isn't seen negatively as the fight obviously happened eventually.

 

In '57 Jackson was ranked nr. 1 when Floyd faced him.

In '58 I think actually Folley was the NBA nr. 1 and Machen nr. 2. Floyd choose to fight the nr. 3 - Harris.

In '59 he faced Ingo, who was nr. 1 after destroying Machen.

In '60 and '61 he was tied up in rematches with Ingo. He made a meaningless defence in the end of '61, but that was after three hard fights against his most dangerous opponent so far.

In '62 he faced Liston.


It's a bit curious why so much is made up out of this. Yes, Folley or Machen would have been a better defence than Harris, but other than that it's not that much to say. Since Floyd had the rematch clause with Ingo, the earliest Liston could have gotten a shot was in late '61, half a year or so before he got it.

 

Ok, fair enough.

But it is an important distinction that Floyd felt that to honour the championship he had to go against his manager's advice. Not everyone has such a keen sense of honour about their title.

 

This sounds like a good story, but Sonny mainly had to wait for his shot because Floyd was tied up in rematches with Ingo. The year after that was settled he got it. Yes, he could have gotten it half a year or so earlier, but Floyd choose to take a soft defence after a very tough trilogy. Not the most outrageous thing ever.

Ingo x 3 and then Liston, that's not an easy ride over four years.

 

Yes he did after he had milked the title for all it was worth, fighting the likes of Rademacher,McNeeley,London etc, and the public were calling Liston the uncrowned champion.

 

Liston could have been champion in 58,made a rack of defences and be recognized as the great heavyweight he was.