It may matter to you, but it doesn't to me. Cus D'amato was his agent. Without Cus to guide him through his troubled youth, he may not have become a successful boxer let alone win the championship. When you are considering Patterson's career as champion, you have to take them as a package, the good with the bad, IMO.
I have him as a lower tier all time great: - 1952 Olympic Gold medalist - youngest to win heavyweight title at that time - first to regain heavyweight title - was ranked by ring for more than ten years - relatively small heavy even for his time
I never thought of Floyd as a clever boxer. His speed of hand often compensated for amateurish lunges and other mistakes. I don't recall ever thinking he outsmarted his opponents. He could be foolishly brave and even reckless. When he was matched with a slugger he'd want to wade in and slug with him. Seldom did he appear to go into the ring with a plan. Hand speed and conditioning usually gave him an edge. Patterson was my favorite fighter. As a kid I took his defeats hard. The only times I thought he fought a really smart fight were against Moore, Chuvalo and in the second bout with Ali. Had he faced Marciano I believe he might have won -- and that would've earned him better than Top 20 status. Unfortunately he never beat an ATG heavyweight. He had four opportunities but wasn't good enough to prevail.
I found this piece, interesting read, from a dozen years ago with the author of a very good biography of Patterson. https://www.austinchronicle.com/books/2012-07-06/the-overthinking-mans-fighter/
Fitzsimmons and Jack Sharkey won the belt twice they just didn't have universial recognition both times. But accurate or not Patterson being the first to win the belt 2x was incredibly relevant to the rest of his career as from that point forward he was pursuing being the first to win the belt 3x. Thats why he was fighting the best every time. He wanted to fight for the belt again and the only way to do that is to fight other contenders.
I don't think hes top 20 especially H2H. There might be over 30 guys I'd pick to beat him even if a majority of those fights should be competitive. Everytime we have a hypothetical thread about Patterson the consensus is usually "the other guy wins a competitive fight". Theres been a lot of great HWs and top 10 and top 20 are very hard clubs to break into. It doesn't sound respectful to call someone a top 30 or 40 HW but its actually a high praise given how long this sport has existed. Patterson tends to lose hypotheticals against HW champs from most eras except the one immediately preceding his reign and the early days.
A brilliant, brilliant fighter relative to his size, who came along at the wrong time. The last 3 x HW champions before him were natural LHW 6ft Charles who was c.180lbs at his HW peak, 5ft 11ins c. 192lbs Walcott and 5ft 10.5ins c. 185lbs Marciano, whilst he fought natural LHW 5ft 11ins c.185lbs Moore for the vacant title. Patterson was a similar size to all, if slightly lighter than Walcott. The champs for remainder of his career and shortly after, aside from 205lbs Frazier, were all 6ft 1ins+ (mostly 6ft 3ins+) and 210lbs+ in a quickly growing division. Aside from Liston and Ali being brilliant, 210lbs+ opponents were always going to be difficult for a natural 180lber, with short arms who needed to get close to his rangier opponents and who didn't have a great chin. If Floyd came along a decade earlier he may be rated higher at HW. If he came along a couple of decades later he may be rated as one of the greatest LHWs of all time.
I disagree that he came along at the wrong time. I believe he came along at the perfect time! If he'd been born 20 years earlier, he'd have been Louis's comtemporary. Ten years later, Ali's contemporary. Twenty years later, Holmes's. Thirty years later, Tyson's and Lennox Lewis's.
That's why I said 10 years earlier and he may have rated higher as a HW and 20 years later as one of the greatest LHWs ever. My point is that at 5ft 11ins and a natural 180-185lbs, he wouldn't have been unusually small at HW in any previous era, but no fighter that size was ever going to be the best HW on the planet again from Liston and Ali onwards.
