Floyd Patterson's comeback in the early 70's

I've have a copy of the fight, basically Ali was in full on clown mode, at times hugging his arms around himself and doing a bad joe frazier headmvement impersonation. Patterson actually landed some good punches in the fight and didn't look too bad, Ali jabbed his eye closed and they stopped it but it wasn't a drubbing like the first fight. Afterwards Ali gave him his props and said he was surprised by how much he had left.

 

FWIW, The Ring had Floyd at either #9 or #10 for most of 1971. In 1972 he rose to #4 and even got as high as #3 in the October and November issues. After the Ali loss he held steady at #4 or #5, then dropped down to #8 in the June 1973 issue after several months of inactivity. By the October 1973 issue Floyd was dropped from Ring's ratings.

 

Heavyweights were getting bigger & more powerful and Floyd was from an earlier era.

Liston was actually a "70's" heavyweight....and you saw what happened there.

Ali toyed with him, George would have bombed him out in 1-2 rounds, Frazier in 4 rounds.
Shavers could have k.o.'ed him too, but might have been a little too green at that young stage of his career.

 

He started his comeback with a ko of Charlie Green, which I saw, and continued until the loss to Ali. His fight with Bonnavena was considered an unofficial win for Oscar as he kept Floyd pinned against the ropes with his strength for much of the fight. Patterson did land one of his big left hooks which in younger days might have dropped ringo. Floyd boxed just great against Ali in their second go and was ahead when he got cut. I was hoping for a Floyd win and he just might have pulled it off without the cut stoppage. All and all he was still a worthy challenger, lower top ten caliber considering the strength of the division at that time.

 

Patterson was never a real heavyweight and won the world title during a dry patch before a golden era started with Sonny Liston using him as a punching bag for two brutally short bouts. Coming back when he did the heavyweight division was far more competitive than when he won the title, he was a contender but he was never winning it again. Frazier and Foreman would have made mince-meat out of him and Ali did.

 

When a saw this thead, I thought they're be more pro-Patterson comments and I'm ashamed at many of the fight fans here that regard his last harrah as some sort of joke. Many want to look at his post-Liston career. He easily beat Machen, out-worked Chuvalo to the max, Ali humiliated him in their 65 scrap with Floyd's bad back issues (granted, he could have never have beaten Ali on any any night for many reasons). Ali will always be a fav with me but, in retrospect, he was a cocky, brutal, individual in many fights and Floyd 1 is one of them. Comes back and brutally KO's Cooper a year later (something Ali couldn't do) and then goes 0-2-1 against Quarry/Ellis in which he could have won all three of those fights save his passive demeanor.
Comes back TWO years later on a final comeback (I always thought he did it only to fight Ali one last time). In his first fight back that ***** Devil Green butted him and hurt that eye badly (the SAME one Ali closed two years later) kinda hard for wounds to heal at an advance age. The Bonavena fight? Close, but somewhat like Chuvalo, he outworked Oscar and deserved the decision. His final scrap with Ali was competitive with one judge having it even at the time of stoppage (thanks Devil Green for ruining what might have been a real final harrah for Floyd, not a win but a competitive decision loss)
And had this great HOF'er reached prime in the early 70's, don't tell me that Norton, Shavers, Lyle, etc...would have walked thru him, no way!
I could say more, but gotta take care of business now...
DO NOT diss Floyd Patterson, his worst opponents weren't Ingo/Sonny/Ali his worst opponent was simply his self which held him back from being even better than what he could have been.
My $0.02

 

I've lways been impressed about the fact that he beat Bonavena.

 

Well said.

They weren't going to put him in there with those pedigreed up and comers. And a championship fight against Frazier would've been bad news since Joe wasn't the type to take it easy in there. But floyd rebounded very well from both of those brutal Liston fights and continued toi be a factor for another 10 years. How many heavies actually stay competitively ranked after they lose their title and take some bad lickings for any kind of duration of time, anyway?

You know the guy I wanted to see Patterson fight back then though? don't laugh, but the clubfighter Chuck Wepner. If nothing else, Wepner was a big strong physical & durable guy in there that liked to manhandle opponents. Patterson had a huge edge in tools, but I tend to think Wep turns it into a Wepner type fight in there. And that Braverman would put him in with anyone and it sure didn't take much of a payday for him to volunteer the services of Wepner.

 

Come on Zad, Floyd waxes Wepner ANY day of the week....of course Chuck might resort to Devil Green's headbutting crap which gives no kudos to that club fighting non-contending pug...

 

I guess i'm not sure what waxing means. Patterson isn't stopping the guy via knockdowns. But those tough physical things a big guy like Wepner always did, to me anyway, would've been asking a lot to handle for an old Patterson. Floyd wasn't getting too many ko's at that stage of his career & Wepner isn't going anywhere and if nothing else, Wepner is capable of turning things into ugly bouts.

 

Patterson might have drowned in Wepner's blood, that's the only danger he faces.