Did Patterson fight in a weak era?

He fought in an era with some emerging top talent but he avoided most of them early on, I mean he won the title from a terribly faded Archie Moore, and then made some terrible defenses.
Tommy Jackson and Roy Harris were acceptable. Not great but ok for a defense. You can’t defend Pete Rademacher, Tom Mcneely, Brian London. Not with guys like Folley out there and of course Liston.

 

Blasphemy!

 

I do think it was a bit weak compared to other eras before and after, but there was still a decent crop of talented fighters around. Patterson made it a tad worse by making a pigeonhole out of the championship during his reign (Though you can blame that on D'Amato if you want to).

 

Moore would stay LHW world champion and HW contender for another 5-6 years.

But, yes, it was an era between two strong champions in Marciano and Liston.

 

Not the greatest of eras, I don't see Ingo becoming a champ in many others tbh.

 

He's a bit frustrating since he met so few top fighters, so it's a bit hard to say for sure. But clean KO's of Cooper, Machen and Patterson is nothing to scoff at. I don't think Machen was ever KO'd like that by any other fighter and Patterson was only truly iced by Liston besides Ingo. And there were very, very few good fighters between '56 and '72 they didn't face between them. That does say something.

 

With Machen, Folley, Liston, Williams, Johanson and Terrell it was a decently strong era, but the issue is, as already mentioned, Patterson only fought Johanson and Liston when it mattered and all the rest never got a chance against him as a champion, which is a shame because I think he'd beat everybody save for Liston.

 

Back then, most heavies were 185-200 pounds. When Liston came around, he was 6'1 210-215 in his prime and that was considered massive. Marciano was 184 pounds when he won the title. Charles was around 180-185. So Patterson fit in size wise.

 

Maybe Ingo might have snatched the heavyweight title in 1988 or 1992?? Wasn't much talent around in the heavyweight division in those days. Amirite??

 

Morrison, Bentt, Seldon, and certain others could've been hits for him. Though he certainly would've gotten whipped by any of his real opponents following his taking of the title.

 

It wasn’t so much that it was a “ weak” era as much as him simply being kept away from the best available talent .

 

Hell. No. Ingo was fortunate D'Amato gave him a shot at the title which tells you how weak Gus thought he was.

 

"Look at me Floyd." Lol

 

I think you are right. I knew a guy who fought a lot of the best heavyweights of the 50s-60s. He trained at Gleason's and Stillman's in NYC. He said that D'Amato occasionally would bring Patterson to the gym to spar. He said he and other guys who trained there would make sure they were in the gym on those days, he said they all wanted to spar Patterson because they all thought they could beat him. He said none of them ever got the chance because D'Amato had lined up easy sparring and wouldn't let Patterson in the ring with any of them.