Floyd Patterson. Is He An ATG??

I'm in a lazy mood rn because I only got 5 hours of sleep lol so I'll rehash one of my old posts.

 

I made a thread similar to this on wether he was overrated, underatted, or perfectly rated with a pole, the majority of people said he was perfectly rated and an ATG.

 

Was for decades the youngest to win the title, first to regain it.

Heck yeah he's an ATG.

 

H2H he may be one of the "weaker" champs, but historically he was pretty significant and did things never done before ..
Youngest HW champ until Tyson, first 2 time champ (won 2nd title by KO.in immediate rematch, another rare accomplishment), and he had a pretty unique style for his day...
And he was in entertaining fights ...

So for those reasons, I say yes he is

 

Absolutely, he’s always with that crowd of 15-20 ATGs and has a great legacy.

This is not the exact order but he comfortably places around 15 for me.

Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Liston, Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Vitali, Wlad, Patterson

 

I’d say he’s got some distinction — being the first to regain, but that also means he got KO’d to lose it (and by a guy who really wasn’t all that great, so winning it back is a nice thing historically but not IMO a great accomplishment in and of itself) — but to me he’s not ATG status.

He was fine but there’s very little time where he was the best in the division. Sonny Liston was for a good while that Floyd still held the title and getting twice poleaxed by Liston kind of illustrates what Floyd was and what he wasn’t.

Now he did have a long time where he was in the top 10 and beat a lot of ranked and very good fighters, but there’s a ceiling that he couldn’t break through to become an all-timer to me.

 

i think he gets a little underrated personally. i do think h2h he beats a lot of the champions that came before him and after him. people act like he would just get knocked out by any decent puncher because he was knocked out by a couple of great heavyweights. few mention all the great heavyweights he himself knocked out.

 

Yes I’ve always considered him as such.

 

Nah....one of his competitors for his HW belt was Pete Rademacher..his first pro fight?
Got knocked out badly by a complete nobody (Scarlett Johannson), lost horribly to his main
contender who his manager had avoided like the plague until forced to fight.
Lost to Quarry and Jummy Ellis. Had wins over Machen, Cooper, Chuvalo and Bonavena, but that's about it.

His backers always bring up "well he was the youngest HW champ" and "he regained his belt".
Well he shouldn't have lost it in the first place.

He is behind such near comtemporaries as Charles, Marciano (who would have Bolivianized him) and Walcott.
No way he defeats Louis before that time. And no way he wins any piece of any belt afterwards.

Not an ATG to me. UP there with Pinklon Thomas and Bonecrusher Smith and I'm not knocking those guys.

 

I have no fixed definition of ATG, but my feeling is no. Don't know if I have him in the top 20 at HW and it should be a bit more than that to be an ATG, I think. His courage probably gets underrated, though.

 

I absolutely agree. He was a very good fighter, but his reign as champion was dismal, very few defenses and he made no attempt to clean up the division or give some very worthy contenders a chance. He and Johansson kept the division on ice with their tit-for-tat series. No comparison with guys like Louis, Ali, Tyson, Holmes, Marciano, and even Frazier who were very active champions. He deserves a lot of credit for being a nice guy and all, but that's not the issue here. As a matter of fact, it was Ali who took on the task of taking on the contenders who Patterson kept waiting in the wings while Floyd diddled with Ingo and Liston. Guys like Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, and Henry Cooper.

 

No. An excellent and skilled fighter but too small at heavy. Never showed the ability to really separate himself against good competition. That’s why he lost close fights to Quarry, Ellis, and won close ones against Chuvalo. He was a notch below ATG. Still classy and a deserved hall of fame career with good longevity.