Any reliable source on what happened in 15th round of Ellis-Patterson?

Here is Sports Illustrated's description of the last round, which (by its description) was a big 1 for Ellis:
"If you believe that Ellis won (the referee, Harold Valan, the only official, scored it 9-6 but many newsmen had it exactly opposite), he most certainly won it in the 15th and final round. The fight appeared even until that point, but then Ellis, sensing his dangerous position, the screams from his corner piercing his ego, finally stepped out and did what he was supposed to do, did what he is capable of. He had fought a long, hard fight but he reached back for what was left in his hurt body and laid it all on Floyd. He dug a left into Floyd's liver and stayed right on him and in the middle of the round he caught him with a pair of whistling right hands, and Patterson was on his way out. Patterson's eyes stared out blankly now, pain masking his face, but Ellis could not finish him."

 

Incidentally, this is exactly how I've always viewed the fight - not as a robbery, but as an indecisive, difficult to score fight w/ Patterson landing cleaner & more damaging punches, but also being far too economical w/ his output.

Although I think Ellis is a bit underrated on the whole, I agree that the fight did expose some of his limitations - he had a lot of trouble adjusting to Patterson's handspeed & fast counter hooks, & his own attack appeared a bit 1-dimensional. Having said that, I think he deserves more credit that he typically gets for fighting thru the pain of a broken nose & thumb & continuing to outwork Patterson.

 

This thread is a fair assessment of the fight (been a while since I revisited) and Jimmy’s style. Ellis was not a hunt-and-peck, stick-and-move guy. He had a bit of slickness to him, but even then he applied it much more as the gunslinger you describe here than as a boxer looking to pile up points and avoid a real fight.

While public sentiment may have been with gentleman Floyd, I think more of the scorers of the day favored the guy who ‘made the fight’ — which both sides understood — and Patterson is nothing if not reluctant throughout much of this. That’s what it came down to, I think, and fair play especially with the last round as described seeming to fall all Jimmy’s way.

 

I do not understand what you meen by saying “The fight cuts at that point”. Round 15 exists for all of us to see. For the record I have Ellis just winning the fight, because several time Floyd goes into his “fall asleep and do nothing mode.”
Also there was no rule at that time to score a knockdown, because a fighter was held up by the ropes.

 

On any version I've seen, the broadcast cuts out partway thru the round, just as Ellis appears to be landing a big right hand:
1:04:09:

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52:37:

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Floyd Patterson was one of the toughest guys to step into the ring.
Even when hurt he'd try and fight back,look at him in Ingo 1 .

 

I always Ithought I was a loner, picking Ellis as the winner despite Floyd been one of may all-time favourites, like a lot of the posters said, it looked like Patterson could win it but was just too inactive at times.

 

Im pretty sure Ive seen a black and white version of this fight that has the 15th round. No one can convince me that Floyd wasnt robbed. This isnt amateur boxing. Floyd did by far the more damage and landed the harder shots and thats even if you think Ellis was landing more which I dont because it wasnt like he was overly busy either. The ref also blew the call on a clear knockdown which had nothing to do with the ropes.

 

I have just checked my copy, and you have point. My copy is on colour, and stops in the last round. Then the rest of of the round is in b/w and so is the announcement of the decision and blabbermouth Cosell interview with Harold Valan.
I can se that my copy is from the old Brian Fletcher collection.
Also I found an old copy of Boxing News, they gave the last round to Ellis, but the reporter calls seven rounds even, so his scorecard is worthless. Observe that Valan scored no rounds even.

 

Jimmy Ellis would’ve been the perfect foil to a younger Patterson I think, old Patterson got a bit tighter with his defence and abandoned a lot of his peekaboo, Ellis would’ve got trigger happy with the right on that guy and it may have closed the show. Lots of respect for FP improving.

 

I’ve never seen this fight scored as anything but close. I can see how some would favor Floyd and how others would favor Ellis.

But given its close nature, I can’t see how anyone would claim either was robbed whatever the decision.

As for the ‘knockdown,’ it wouldn’t change the scoring unless it swung the round from Ellis to Patterson as the fight was scored on the rounds system.