Floyd Patterson Appreciation Thread

From Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing's Invisible Champion.

"Floyd served twice on the NYSAC, the last time as chairman. During his term as chairman, however, i became apparent that Floyd was experiencing some sort of mental decline. Thomas Hauser...spoke to Patterson at a reception in 1995. "Floyd had become one of those guys who could talk about things that happened years ago but couldn't remember what he ate for breakfast," Hauser said. Hauser believed that as time went on, the athletic commission office functioned incompetently because of Floyd's diminished state.

"Floyd's cognitive difficulties became painfully apparent in 1997. As the commission's chairman, Patterson was giving a videotaped deposition concerning MMA contests, which were banned in NY at that time. As the attorney's representing the MMA interests grilled him, Floyd's memory collapsed. Among other lapses, Paterson couldn't remember beating Archie Moore in 1956...Floyd balmed his miserable performance on lack of sleep but it was obviously something much more serious than that. T he damage was done, Patterson had to resign his post. He retreated to New Paltz, where an AP reporter tracked him down a few months later. Paterson refused to discuss the disastrous deposition with the reporter "but his face crumples when the subject is raised. Friends say what hurts him ost ist he feeling that he let the governor [conservative Geroge Pataki, who appointed Floyd to the post] down."

"Floyd steadily became further lost in dementia's fog as the new millennium began. Prostate cancer also afflicted him. The old champ who prided himself on being the boxer who got back on his feet more than any other was finally floored for good on May 11, 2006. He was 71 years old."

This content is protected

 

This content is protected

 

This content is protected

 

This content is protected