Floyd Patterson's regaining of the heavyweight Title.

For me it is an underrated achievement definitely.

Noone else had done it before in the division and few did it after.

If you actually watch his losses it's only really liston and Ali who proved his superior.

I feel he's an underrated HW although Tyson did take his crown as the youngest hw champ.

 

A massively underrated historical achievement. NOBODY gave him a chance in that rematch with Ingo. That and his being the youngest man to win the title...up until Tyson. There has been Ali regaining the title 3 times since then, and the aforementioned Tyson, but remember, Patterson was the FIRST in both acheivements.

 

Tyson is not the youngest champ as far as linial purposes go, just the youngest belt holder. Tyson did not become THE CHAMP until he beat Spinks at which time he was older than Patterson.

 

i always struggle with this...i WANT to say tyson is the youngest champ ever. cause he's tyson

but i'm always a lineage ***** (except when roy jones is concerned) and by typical standards, spinks was still the champ. tyson was just cleaning out the division and collecting belts but he wasn't the champ

 

If we are using an equal playing field whereby boxers of the past and present are held to a same standard, than patterson holds the claim......Is that fair???? NO, but when ever has boxing history been fair!

 

If you like Patterson, it was a great achievement.
If you don't like him, it wasn't.

Why did he have to regain the title?
Why did he lose it to begin with?

 

Ridiculous post...before he regained the title, no one who ever lost the crown was ever able to regain it. It was a historical achievement....whether you like Floyd Patterson or not. I'm sure you give Ali credit for regaining the title from Spinks. Ask yourself, why did he have to regain the title?

 

It's like a man getting fired then getting his job back.

Wouldn't it be more of an accomplishment to never get fired to begin with?

I think getting knocked down 20 times as champion and knocked out twice is far more telling of Patterson than regaining his title.

 

Well only three men up to that time hadn't been fired. I think the fact.that Patterson beat more ranked contenders than all but a handful of heavyweight champions is more telling of his abilities.

 

Ranked contenders?

Patterson only faced a top 3 contender three times in 8 title defenses. He only beat one of them.

He dodged the rest of them. Eddie Machen and Zora Foley were ranked 1 or 2 for most of Patterson's "reign". He dodged them both.

He dodged Liston for 3 years until it became an embarrassment and he finally agreed to fight him and got his ass handed to him.

 

You are getting to be quite tiresome! Will you please stop trying to use facts, logic and reasoning on this forum...it really detracts from the other posts.

 

His career is more than his heavyweight title reign. And a fact is a fact; Patterson fought and beat loads of ranked opposition.

 

Not only was he the first to regain the title, but coming back from such a brutal KO loss to win the title is a never-matched accomplishment in the heavyweight division. Ingo PULVERISED Patterson in that last round.

The only accomplishments of the same kind that could have matched it would have been Frazier coming back to beat Foreman in an immediate rematch, Spinks beating Tyson in an immediate rematch, or Wlad beating Sanders in an immediate rematch. Patterson had looked like a yo-yo against Ingo, and yet he came back to win by KO. A true legend, even though I don't rank him that highly in my ATG list.

What did it prove? That Patterson had the greatest heart and will-to-win of anyone in heavyweight history. There are some equals of Patterson in this regard, but no betters. This is a man who went round after round with the Greatest, despite a severe back injury; a man who got destroyed by Liston in one round and then came back for more; a man who got up off the floor to win time after time against tough opposition.

Patterson was overshadowed by Ali, but in his time he was the most popular boxer in the world, and as late as his rematch with Ali HE was the favourite of the crowd, and rightly so. A true American hero.

 

Time to be a *******...but...

here is why it didnt happen before..because most heavyweight champions were dominate, and held the title until they actually got old and declined..hence the chance of winning a rematch is small. Patterson however, lost while in his prime and regained it while in his prime...in a sense..that shows how he was suspectable to a pretty damn good but not great heavyweight (Ingo) even in his prime.