This content is protected how do you rate Patterson "P4P"? Do you think he would have been known as a Great MW and/or LH if he chose to stick with those divisions? Or even today, how well do you think he would do against modern MW, SMW, and LH?
Yes. I can't see anyone from his time bothering him at LHW other than maybe Harold Johnson. Shame it never happened. He would beat any of them, in my opinion.
It's a sidewinder and a half isn't it? Perfect torque and timing. Floyd could throw some nasty leather when he wanted despite essentially being a gentleman. It always make me smile slightly when he pulls Green to his feet in the 8th from what could possibly be construed as a legitimate knockdown from a certain angle. Class act. It was the end of Green's days though - I don't think he won another fight after this and his life pretty much unravelled itself around him. Not the most uplifting human interest story to say the least. Is there any footage of the fight with Torres?
Never came across any, but here's Green's knockout of Ray Anderson: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PvrWm7Lh78[/ame]
I think so too. I think he could clear out the current SMW and LH division today. Both Bute and Ward are very good but both make crucial mistakes that I think Patterson would capitalize on. And Chad Dawson,, he is good as well but he too I believe would fall behind and have trouble with Patterson. Every time I talk about Patterson in a discussion, Sonny Liston destroying Patterson always gets brought up. But they forget how highly regarded Liston was at that point in his career, who was still fit to fight and motivated to win. As well as being a legit 200+ pound HW who did have very good skills as a "boxer." Patterson really had no business being in there if you really look at it. Maybe not exactly, but it is similar to Spinks and Tyson. Talk about Spinks, and people bring up Tyson. It doesn't mean Spinks wasn't good below HW. He just ran into the wrong guy at HW at that time. As far as him as fighter below HW, I regard him very highly but I'm not sure others do because he never really cemented a legacy below it because D'Amato's intention for him was to capitalize on the current HW division. I think if Liston had been already around and established as HW Champ, D'Amato may have just stuck to Patterson being a LH at best. Just my opinion though.
I love Patterson and his style. The combination of fluidity and speed is just awesome. Only Tyson came close later on but look at this fight and Tyson´s fight and you see that Patterson actually could fight on the inside. Beautiful bodyshot. Patterson packed a punch, he certainly wasn´t a KO artist like Foreman, Marciano, Louis, Liston, Dempsey but he packed a punch and with his speed he could catch you without you seeing it coming which made his punches even more dangerous. Even with today´s 24 hour weigh-ins and weight-draining I can´t see Floyd making mw in his prime. SMW he probably could make. If he could he would clean out the division. He´s more skilled, punches harder, is faster and just in everything better than any of the current smws. Same goes for lhw. Dawson may be a challenge for a while but only for a while. CW probably would be more interesting because there are some guys with some great pop, and also I don´t think Floyd´s chin was glass, it could be cracked, but in the end he would prevail there too. I think if Floyd would start his career today it would look similar to Jones´. Starting out at mw, winning a belt, moving to smw, unifying at least three titles, depending on politics, moving up to lhw unifying the division and stay there for a while. Making a little stint to cw to pick one or two belts up. Give it a try at lhw and pick up a belt from a guy not named Wladimir Klitschko.
How did I not know Floyd had a son who won a WBC title? In all the years of loving boxing, I suppose you always learn new "what is supposed to be" known things. :good
Patterson packed a solid punch for power, especially for a under 200 pound fighter. If you look at Marciano and him, how much are they really separated by? Tyson slammed to the body quite well. Even when he later went away from the all out body-attacks, while still with Rooney, he would pick his shots very well. He would hit you at certain moments when they were direct clean shots. Like say when you threw and that body was left exposed. I always figured he later figured why bother wasting energy against these big guys with just pounding the body when I could pick shots more careful and make them count more while conserving energy. Take for example his fight with Jesse Ferguson who was somewhat closer to his size at 6'2, 211+; he attacked the body well. Like I mentioned before, I think those big guys that are past that weight and thicker could just take a better pounding to the body so he just said...F- going all out. Pick your shots and make them count. He was sneaky too. If your arms were tucked to protect your ribs, he would shoot a shot behind the elbow towards/and/or on the kidney. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleMYUTABIQ[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmc-cd0LyOY&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUOmVZ0lezg&feature=related[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHMi1KDLWbk[/ame] I think he rather meant that Patterson was more adept at fighting on the inside than Tyson, who despite all his strengths wasn't necessarily anything special in "shoulder to shoulder" fighting. Here's Patterson at a very young age taking the fight to Don Grant: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LYm8vQgwzM[/ame]
