Floyd Patterson be considered an ATG?

HoF but no ATG

 

Certainly not an ATG champion but as a fighter in general, I think he has a claim: Olympic gold medalist, youngest lineal champion and the first to regain the title. Those are tremendous accomplishments. I also think his ranking would be higher had he been given the nods against Quarry and Ellis which, in my opinion, he should have.

 

Yes. As he himself humorously put it, "No heavyweight champion was never knocked down more times, but no heavyweight champion ever got up more times!" Tremendous heart, and no one ever put him completely out. Even in the two bouts with Liston, he almost beat the count.

Coming back the way he did after Ingo I, Liston I & II, Ali I and the Ellis robbery is crazy. And he wasn't necessarily done following the cut eue stoppage in Ali II after having come off the floor to decision Bonavena, his best win of the 1970's. (In Ringo's final 12 career bouts, he would only lose to Lyle, but then decision the 6'4" Middleton over 12.) Floyd may still have been a top five HW at the time of Ali II, and he certainly did better than Jerry Quarry and Bob Foster that year. It was Ali's final stoppage win on cuts, and Floyd might have been good for 12 complete rounds with an unmarked face. Tremendous longevity, and it can be argued he should have won all three decisions that went against him.

!973 was Jerry Quarry's greatest year. Could Floyd have come back from Ali II to upset JQ's apple cart?

Proved with Chuvalo and Bonavena that physical strength and stamina alone wasn't enough, that a full complement of boxing qualities was necessary. Size alone wasn't enough either, as he demonstrated with Charlie Powell and Tod Herring.

Maybe the fastest hands of any heavyweight champion ever. Amazing combination puncher. Good enough to be Marvin Hagler's idol.

Lot's of boxing aficiandos felt he should've defended against Machen in the late 1950's before Ingo got Eddie. In 1964, Floyd rebounded from Liston II to decision Machen over 12.

Henry Cooper and Terry Daniels still had future accomplisments ahead of them when Patterson beat them. He didn't feast on has-beens.

 

It’s kind of amazing to see his comeback after the Liston fights, battling a bad back & age. You could make the case Patterson would actually rank higher than Tyson, looking purely at ring achievements.

 

Yes.

 

I’ve said repeatedly, he was a better fighter from age 31 or so on than he was as champion. And if a couple of questionable decisions had gone his way, no one would be questioning his ATG status.

 

He won 2 seperate lineal titles that weren't part of the same lineage. You can also say Corbett unretiring cancels Tom Sharkeys lineal title. Its like if Tunney came back after Schmeling v Sharkey which Schmeling won under similar circumstances. Well is that not a lineal title fight now even though it was clearly intended to be? When the old champ comes back it complicates this matter. Thats why I believe you can have 2 lineages but can only add them if the old champ retires.

He also won lineal HW and LHW titles and went unrecognized for this when people say Michael Spinks is the first to do that. Theres quite a few to win non lineal HW/LHW titles and be 2x HW claimants pre Spinks and Patterson but hes the only lineal one in both clubs. So regardless there was a tendanacy to ignore Fitz feats in the name of hyping acheivements of the day.

 

But that's 2 division champion, not 2 time heavyweight champion.

 

I was saying they are both titles that people ignore Fitzsimmons won.