Did Patterson taunt Johansson when he was out cold?

nah

 

Jack Johnson would like a word...

 

Yes, but that’s an outlier. Now it’s an epidemic.

 

Someone gets it.

 

To me, Norris just seemed elated at the result. Big deal KO’ing Mugabi in one. The Beast was still considered quite formidable at that point — he went toe to toe with Hagler in a loss that impressed a lot of people and the Duane Thomas defeat was really fluky with the eye injury from a thumb.

A guy trains for weeks, gets into that mental zone to go to war, really pumped up at the opening bell and then … suddenly it’s over. All that pent-up energy has to go somewhere. I don’t see being super hyped after a big win as lacking sportsmanship … he wasn’t taunting Mugabi or directing anything at him as far as I could tell.

Plus some people are less reserved and more heart-on-their-sleeve emotional than others.

But, as I said, eye of the beholder.

 

This for me.

 

Fair point...yet, we could probably claim Ali was also an outlier, learning from Johnson but more obviously from pro wrestler Gorgeous George!! Few people copied Ali through the sixties and seventies, perhaps Tyson was the next big talker at HW with his truculent malevolent eloquence always threatening a violent fistic denouement!! But yes, it seems almost regardless of talent, everyone is at it these days!!

 

The exact opposite.

Start at 28:45...:

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His handlers lift him up, but he's having non of it and fights his way back down to Ingo. Then, he keeps turning his head away from Cosell trying to interview him, then after Howard begins talking, Floyd keeps looking over towards Ingo until Cosell says he's getting up. At 33:33, after he finally gets to talk to Ingo, he finally accepts a lift aloft.

Ingo's still sitting down away from his corner as Floyd leaves the ring, but is finally seen standing under his own power at 34:38, a full minute and 11 seconds after the knockout punch landed. Think about that. This happened to be the very first world championship fight ever officiated by a referee named Arthur Mercante, and he literally could have counted for at least a minute over Johansson. (Maybe longer. I just reviewed footage of Duane Bobick being laid out for over five minutes after Lyle flattened him in their second amateur bout. Kim Duk-koo actually beat Richard Greene's count, while Springfield Davey Moore gave a live televised lucid ring interview on his feet to Steve Ellis after walking back to his corner following round ten to be retired on his stool. But Floyd laid Ingo out the way Leotis did Liston, and Weaver did Tate.)

 

Speaking of Michael Spinks, he had nothing to do with some jackass playing "Another One Bites the Dust!" at 16:40 while Howard Cosell does the exact classy opposite, saying and describing the completely appropriate things at the same time..:

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You bet all the boxing magazines also trashed the playing of this song in their next issues! (I have those issues.)

Howard had the most savage critics of any sportscaster, but was Howard actually as bad as they liked to claim he was? (Cosell Derangement Syndrome?)

 

The way I wish it still was TBH. These 5 minute long stare downs today just cause hostilities. It's stupid

 

Did anybody do these stare downs prior to Liston and Frazier? As for Ali's antics, he admitted after his career that he was outmatched for public antics by former mentor brief mentor Archie Moore. Decades later, when you tried staring down a Moore fighter, you'd also find the Mongoose's eyes glaring at you. I simply loved that, LOL. Not something Moore did during his own career, but he became very adept and colorful at it in his old age.

Charley Burley couldn't stand Moore's flamboyance, so he beat the crap out of Archie.

Previously, Joe Louis got enraged by Galento. Then, Two Ton and Max Baer went at it.


Jim Corbett pulled antics like that with Peter Jackson and Sullivan.

As for Corbett himself, the windup preceding him was obnoxious little pissant Charley Mitchell, who Gentleman Jim angrily punched out in Jacksonville, not giving a damn about his hands.

 

I remember some controversy around Sal Marchiano, the original ESPN boxing play-by-play man, who tried to get “Good night sweet prince” over as a knockout catchphrase — the line coming from Hamlet in the context of tribute to someone who has died. I think ESPN told him to cut it out knowing the possibility of him someday saying it for a KO ending in a ring death.

 

This is Patterson interviewed in 1972:

There was only one occasion where I let hate creep into a fight - my revenge win against Johansson.

I had hated Johansson ever since he took the world title from me 12 months before. Not because he took the most precious thing in my life when he stopped me in three rounds, but because of his behaviour afterwards.

We have a saying where I come from : "So you've knocked me down - now are you gonna step on me?"

That's what Johansson seemed to be doing to me after the fight. He was always on TV, laughing at his victory and the way he had floored me seven times.

He seemed to be humiliating me and I became determined to hurt him. Even more than regaining the title, I wanted to destroy Johansson.

When we fought again I knocked him out with a left hook in the fifth. He'd been down for nine and I had him senseless with lefts and rights before the final punch.

People have asked whether it was the hardest punch I ever threw. All I know is it was meant to be.

Maybe I tried to kill Ingo. When I saw him splayed out on his back I had a wonderful feeling of revenge because I'd hurt him. For several seconds I didn't even think about being the only man ever to win back the world crown. Then I felt wonderful.

But suddenly I saw Johansson's leg twitch. I'd never seen anything like it before, and it became worse, like some sort of a fit. I thought - God, I've killed him.

All the happiness drained out of me. I felt cold fear as I knelt beside him.

Eventually he came round and I've never been so glad to see someone stand up. Then I felt good again.

But I'll never hate another man like that as long as I live.

 

Yes, I was thinking about Jack Johnson, but his situation was brought on by the tension of the racist environment of that particular match so I gave it a pass. His taunting was an isolated event whereas today it is commonplace.