Floyd patterson Doesn't get enough credit!!

Patterson would GET credit if he ever defended the title against a LIVED body in his title rein. You can only defend the title against the Jackson and Petes for so long until people demand a top contender like Liston or Folly.

 

Based on your viewing of Ali Patterson 2, is it tha case that Floyd doesn't get enough credit, or is it the case that Ali gets too much?

 

Weight and size may not be important for one fight. However, over the course of a career facing men coniderably larger than oneself can bring dire consequences. Case in point: Jerry Quarry. He did well against guys like Mathis, Foster, Lyle, Shavers, etc. But these larger, heavier guys were still hitting him back. The big men in Dempsey's day were severely limited fighters. Compare Fred Fulton and Jess Willard to modern big men like Lennox Lewis and the Klitschkos. There is no comparision. There is a reason why a 200lb. Roy Jones decided not to defend the title he won from Ruiz. He knew that fighting the big guys is a very dangerous assignment. Patterson was a remarkable fighter. The only times he was really kayoed and overpowered was the first Johansson fight and the two Liston fights. Floyd was resilient and only those two guys (Johansson and Liston) with alltime great punching power kept him down. He was robbed against Ellis in 1968. By that time I guess they wanted new blood and Floyd was a veteran. One of the alltime great gentleman too. Everyone liked Floyd Patterson. Heck, even Liston loved the guy and that is saying alot! Liston did not like most people.

 

I agree he doesn't get enough credit and was an amazing talent also Ali regarded him as the most talented fighter he ever fought.

 

They didn't keep him down either. He always rose. You never saw Floyd lying prone with the ref tolling away.

As the resident Floyd lover, I have to say it was his own fault that he is, for the most part, underrated. He was just too passive and, save Ingo 2, never carried any killer instinct into the ring.
IMO if he kept that hungry Ingo 2 with him in his other fights
he would have, rather easily, gone 3-0 in his Quarry-Quarry-Ellis trifecta.

my $0.02

 

Well you may not have seen Liston 2 than. Patterson got the full count.

 

Patterson was unfortunate in having Sonny Liston coming in right after he won the title. Same thing happened with Frazier and Foreman.

These two champs more than anybody ran into somebody tailor-made to destroy them relatively early in their title reign.

Although his heavyweight H2H position suffers because of his small stature, he'd most likely be a light heavyweight in today's boxing.

I'd sure as hell pick him over Calzaghe and Hopkins.

 

Right after he won the title?? Patterson was champ for YEARS from 1956 up until 61 or 62?? Liston didnt relly make noise until 58 though.

 

Hey Demp!
As a Patterson lover, I've obviously seen all his fights that are available to see.
I could watch again (maybe not, too painful) but I always thought it was TKO in one, failure to rise in time KO in the other. But he was always getting up, that was my point. You know, maybe this is wishful thinking but I've always wondered what would have happened had the bell saved Floyd in Ingo 1. One thing you could always say about my hero, he had remarkable recouperative powers.

Edit: As to Patterson's 50's weak title defenses, that was all Cus's doing; in retrospect Floyd wanted the best available: Folley, Machen, Williams, DeJohn, an aging Valdez...etc. and I would daresay he may have run the table against them unless his passive soft nature got in the way...

And, as I've said before, with repeated viewings of the Ellis fight, it wasn't the robbery that many (including myself) had said it was.
Patterson simply NEVER consistantly stayed on the attack in his fights; that's why an assessment of him is so darned difficult.

How else can you explain how this HOF numbing left-hook, combination whirlwind would have to take 24 rounds to dispose of Roy Harris & Brian London?

It breaks my heart to realize how much more highly rated he could have been had he kept himself in more of a constant "seek & destroy" mode.

But I guess a less "kinder gentler" Floyd wouldn't have endeared himself to all of us as much...

 

Size does matter.

I think Patterson gets about as much credit as he deserves, he wasnt a great heavyweight champion, he was small and beatable, thats why he doesnt enter in many H2H arguments...I would pick most of todays average heavyweight champs to beat him.

 

With all due respect, I totally disagree. Maybe you're a young man who wasn't around to see the division play out back then.

I've been struggling with the idea that comparing fighters in different eras is misleading, difficult, if not downright impossible!

Let me get nasty To say that Floyd loses to "todays average heavyweight champs" is, quite simply, an ill-informed joke!

 

Patterson was not knock cold, but He was not getting up either, he took the full count on his butt. It was not like Marciano Charles II or Walcott Louis II were they ALMOST beat the count.