Revisionist History Contest

Nothing in life/boxing is quite as black & white as that assessment!

Braddock's record as a light heavyweight included a long list of early KOs, and 35 wins, 5 losses & 6 draws up until he fought Tommy Loughran for the light heavyweight title. If that makes Braddock a bum he was able to find a long list of bigger bums to pad his record and get a title shot!

Loughran was one of the great light heavyweights! Amongst his 116 wins, 29 losses, 13 draws he regularly made opponents look silly.

Braddock certainly more than fulfilled his potential later as a heavyweight. The fight with Baer was close. But most thought Braddock won. Losing later to Joe Louis was something many others managed to do also.

Braddock wasn't a pretty fighter, but he was pretty successful!

How many world titles did you win? Do you rate yourself a bum??

 

Floyd Patterson. People talk about how Louis, Robinson and Ali transcended the sport, but during the 1960s and most of the 1970s, Patterson was considered one of the most popular sportsmen EVER in American history. The Madison Square Garden crowd, which was in the 1970s usually at worst mixed in its reaction to Ali, totally turned against him in the Patterson rematch, cheering every single punch landed by Patterson...

... Which brings up another point, which is that a totally shot Patterson was still able to be very competitive against a pre-Rumble Ali who was out to look impressive after a series of listless fights. Anti-Patterson fans might say that Ali was clowning, but I can't think of any occasion when Ali clowned when he was behind on the scorecards half way through the fight. It took Ali's brutal talent at messing up faces to draw that one to a close...

... Which under modern rules means that Floyd Patterson won the event, if not the decision. :think Considering the reaction of the crowd to the stoppage (they couldn't see that Patterson's eye looked like a split plumb) it has significant parallels with Klitschko-Lewis, except that it was the old guy who did better than prediceted. And it was a scientific boxing match.

Basically Floyd Patterson is overshadowed by Ali, to the extent that we think of Ali as being the defining boxer of the 1960s. That wasn't what people thought at the time: Patterson then possessed the kind of mass-popularity that Ali would only get in the mid-to-late 1970s. That's epitomised in the fact that Patterson brushed shoulders with the US President in the 1960s, while Ali had to wait until after the Rumble.

Whatever one thinks of his abilities, we should always remember that Patterson was loved by the masses in a way that only a handful of boxers in history have been loved, and perhaps uniquely, it was almost solely due to his charm and honour outside of the ring. Patteson could lose or he could win, but he was always the man that the US public cheered for before the fight.

 

I see a lot of respect for Patterson in this forum. I don't think he's underrated. And I don't think he was shot when he met Ali. He looked really good for a 37-year old to me.

 

I'm not talking about his abilities as a boxer, but his place as a sporting icon. Patterson got overlooked because he was followed up by an icon who was even easier to spin into something he wasn't.

If he wasn't shot, then he'd suddenly become unshot after years of being shot. A more likely explanation is that he had a REALLY smart gameplan that got Ali on the front foot and gave him plenty of chances to counter. Patterson's footwork in that fight is really an example of how "less can be more".

 

He had been on a pretty long winning streak and had beaten Bonavena shortly before taking on Ali. How is that shot? His last loss was a very close one against Quarry if I'm not mistaken. He looked in better shape than seven year younger Ali when they met in 1972.

 

You do have a point, but both faced one really big puncher each and both was obliterated (Floyd twice). People draw conclusions from what they know.

 

Bum ???????, that "bum" dropped a prime joe louis and gave him a hard fight when louis was destroying people, he was also for a lot of his career fighting hungry and broke and with a damaged hand due to lack of food, he was no ****ing bum

 

Lets not forget the many times Patterson hit the deck, in his championship rein vs novices, including a guy in his pro fight. Thats not easy to write off.

 

patterson dont get me wrong is a great fighter (with a even better last name) he was fast and had a hard punch and was really just a blown up light heavy going up to heavy for the sake of it really. he didnt have the best of chins though as he was KO'd by Johansson and Liston and put down alot but if you take in to account the weight differences against him he regulary fought at his achievments look even better.

 

Ruben Carter gets a lot of sympathy for his wrongful conviction. But the movie Hurricane shows him beating the crap out of Giardello which is not what happened. Carter's fame was built on his flash kayo of Emile Griffith, who was a blown up welterweight.

 

Supposed wrongful conviction.

 

Braddock a bum? Clearly you don't know boxing!