Floyd Patterson, Enigma

When you dig into Floyd Patterson's career it becomes a complex, tough read ..

When he was coming up it appears not only was he considered a monster force but enough of one that he may have factored into Marciano's retirement .. I have read in multiple sources that there was a window in time that Patterson was viewed as potentially that good and dangerous .. because Floyd's title came so early based on Rocky retiring earlier than D'Amato originally thought, Cus protected him in a way that was screwy, fighting terrible opposition pre-Ingo and again pre-Liston. How this factored into Patterson's confidence and the public's view of him had to be dramatic .. then you have the Liston massacres and the humiliating loss to Ali that made him a joke of sorts .. he went from being a world champ to a joke due to those losses to two of the top heavyweight champions in history ... post Ali 1 he actually came back, fought much better competition as an older fighter and did exceptionally well ..

My point is that Patterson went from a phenom to the youngest champ in history to the most protected champ in history to the first to ever regain the title to a disgraced ex - champion laughing stock to a very courageous elder statesman ..

When you rate the all time greatest fighters under 200 pounds Patterson must be in the mix ..

 

The Liston fight was simply a match up issue .. like Frazier - Foreman .. against Ali the first time he did seem to have back injury .. he actually put up a better fight in the Ali rematch .. post title he did beat Chuvalo, Bonavena and Machen and gave younger , prime Quarry and Ellis terrific fights ..

It's tough to see a fighter more protected as champion than Patterson was .. Pete Rademacher, Roy Harris, Brian London and Tom McNeeley .. seriously ? Four of the worst title challengers in history ..

 

Certainly part of the story of why Floyd fought no one but whatever D'Amato's true motives were the fact is that Patterson's opposition was pathetic and gave the impression that his own management doubted his abilities .. I personally don't believe Cus walked on water and that his motives were a myriad of honorable and self serving. He was clearly an eccentric guy. He later behavior with Tyson seemed to be motivated by what was in his own best interests and I doubt it started w Mike.

 

Floyd was a very deep and complex guy .. he had some very interesting insight into his fights w Rademacher and other guys ..

 

I've read all I could .. really enjoyed the Hurley (Vol 3) you turned us on to which was outstanding BTW ..